Dark Vein
by My Wunderwaffle iz missin
Summary: The secretive mercenary group the Strike Blades return; A hasty deal with extremists causes them to fall back to a scene of absolute horror. Centered on vengeance, they find one survivor before they are forced to flee. The culprit is traced to a wealthy, shadowy organization with catastrophic plans for humanity and the Blades may already be too late to stop them. Blades Volume 4
1. Prologue

**Unknown location**

**September 30, 2558**

The dense jungle would swallow up anything taking place within, including the temporary encampment built inside just out of sight from a passerby. Along the sides were blue ovals of portable shields, effective at neutralizing the explosive effects of grenades. Further back did the portable structures comprise the main camp that could be set up or torn down in a jiffy. The gnarled appearance of the massive trees surrounding looked like dead limbs, snaking everywhere and ready to trip an unsuspecting traveler.

A large ship was stationed overhead of a clearing, escorted by two smaller sleek ships originating from an extraterrestrial source. However, in many popular culture beliefs of alien ships dwarfing the humans', the ship of human origin was about twice their size. In truth, the alien group, known as the Storm Covenant had ships far larger and superior, but the two CRS-light cruisers and their sister ships now formed the backbone of the radical remnant fleet. They were small and fairly weak, hardly a threat to most other starships on their own, but combine three or four of them and they could be a much serious threat to larger vessels.

The two cruisers broke their formation, flying off into the night, their green colored engines fading as they vanished over the horizon. With a radio set held to his face, the human ship captain was on the ground near the camp, guiding a pair of pelican dropships as they moved a massive rust caked shipping container to the ground. The multipurpose box carried a precious cargo that had spared the crew from a shoot on sight by the Storm's forces present.

The captain was a tall white skinned man, wearing a mismatched uniform of blue and dark green and reddish brown hair hidden by a cap. Circling his large neck was a collar that provided a cool touch to the humid and hot tropical air of a jungle. His companion stood nearby, observing the armed aliens instead of the maneuvering of the pelican pilots. Unlike the captain, he had much more of a commanding presence, an undeniable feeling once a good look was cast at him.

Amid the Covenant troops, he spotted his contact. The ranking elite wore the instant recognizable golden armor of the Warrior. Those who were permitted to wear this particular lightweight and strong combat harness were all some of the most seasoned veterans of the past wars against humanity and the Covenant loyalists of the original empire. Warriors were highly feared throughout the UNSC and thus were prime targets if they lived long enough to take him out.

Their warrior leader had a needler clipped to his belt and his eyes were hidden by a shade lense feature that was integrated into the combat suit's HUD.

The acting captain, Conan Pyra had been chosen for his height by the real captain of the ship, Trip Aegis to conduct their deal. Although the different species that had a grudging truce with one another, Aegis knew the representative sent by the Sangheili Jul 'Mdama, the leader of the Storm Covenant would feel more at ease dealing with a human that shared the sangheili trait of being tall.

Pyra spoke something into a radio in his hand. The device didn't even have a battery inside. He once again scanned the Storm ranks, sizing up what their possible opposition was. There were at least two dozen of the cannon fodder unggoy, nine kig-yar with glowing shields and a handful of the tall sangheili. He didn't see any of the hulking lekgolo, which carried lethal shields and anti-armor guns, but he couldn't discount the possibility.

"Pelicans one and two return to port and standby for extraction. We'll call you once we're done." Pyra waved over once the unggoy had cut the lines with a nod from the elite.

"Solid copy, see you when you return." Pelican one's pilot responded before firing up the engines and disappearing upwards. Pelican two hovered close to the ground, dropping a couple more people before thundering back to the bay.

"Alright." Aegis lightly tapped Pyra's shoulder, "Let's go make a deal."

The two stepped at the front of the two others that backed them. Behind Aegis was an older man with thinning hair and freshly steamed clothes. Like the vessel above that seemed to barely run on minimal power, they were outfitted with little modern equipment. The fourth person, an individual named Leah Roush cradled an MA37 series assault rifle that had noticeable cracks along its stock. The magazine held on to tape fashioned inside the chipped metal confines.

"Ready to play jeweler?" Trip asked his executive officer, Drew Rayson. The latter had once had the physique of the former, but age had now thickened the belt on the dress pants he wore, which were coated with sweat from underneath. He was in his fifties, at Aegis' side on the very concept of their child, the private mercenary group Strike Blades. Their easy friendship of mutual respect had overcome every challenge they faced and the enemies of their clients were always throwing new ones.

Hopefully this one would prove to be survivable, as they now were face to face with a legion of one of the most bloodthirsty and hostile groups since the end of the Human-Covenant war. They'd dealt with them before, but not on diplomacy terms. Trip wasn't too thrilled about it being successful.

"As the old saying goes, diamonds are a mercenary's best friend."

"That's new." Roush whispered.

"It's true."

The lone warrior detached himself from the two dome helmeted rangers beside him and strode over. Pyra and Aegis led Roush and Rayson over to a table where the warrior gave a subtle nod.

The deal the Strike Blades were doing had been less than a week in the making, through highly sophisticated communication that wasn't allowed to be monitored by UNSC or ONI eavesdroppers. It was pretty simple though, in exchange for a pound of rare Forerunner soul diamonds, the Blades were arming the Storm with seven hundred storm rifles, two hundred and fifty needlers, two hundred fuel rod guns, fourteen hundred batteries for the rifles, two full caddies per needler and a thousand rounds for the handheld launchers. 'Mdama's messages didn't ask how the Blades had gotten ahold of the large amount of alien military equipment and Aegis wasn't going to ask how the cultist leader had acquired so many diamonds. Though coming from him, most likely brought by human or unggoy slaves in order to finance his cause. He had a surplus of willing soldiers and with the high number, was critically short on weapons. The prospect of using human weapons would've outraged him so the real supplier, ONI had delivered the shipment full of Covenant ones instead.

"Captain Pyra." The elite made quite a good attempt at pronouncing the "P" letter, something elites had much difficulty doing. "I am Warrior Jed Ontom of the Storm Covenant." He spoke quite good English in a deep rumbling voice that didn't seem to have any humanity to it, which made Aegis suspect that he served as a translator for human speech prior to joining.

"Warrior." Pyra stood his ground. Even at full height, he couldn't match the sangheili leader's form. He raised his hands as one of the rangers frisked him for weapons. The second one searched the other three. When he came to Roush, she begrudgingly let him take the assault rifle away.

"Our great leader, the Didact's Hand sends his regards and he regrets not being able to meet you in person."

'Mdama had been fronting his war from a secret location somewhere in the former Covenant held space or this Requiem shield world. He seemingly disappeared after his escape from ONI and had only been seen once by a Spartan team that had been sent to locate Dr. Catherine Halsey. What was nerve racking about him was that he had foiled all attempts by the UNSC to infiltrate his headquarters, personally killing four kig-yar that had been trained by the UNSC to join the Storm with orders to assassinate him. His air of invincibility only added to his appeal, with the blood of thousands of humans on his hands.

"Can I ask what has the Didact's Hand done to be absent for our exchange?"

"He has…" Ontom seemed to be thinking of a story, "He has some pressing matters to attend to. We are currently initiating a massive fleet movement away from the holy world of Requiem for an important operation."

As much as they wanted to relay that intel back to ONI, Pyra kept his cool and didn't inform anyone. He didn't know what to make of it, but the office would always be able to milk some sort of vital measures from a single sentence and then go through another dozen protocols.

"You have brought the weapons." The warrior made it more of a statement than a question.

"I have. You will see them as soon as my associate here inspects our diamonds." Pyra gestured behind him to Drew.

"Yes. As we agreed." Ontom said gesturing behind him. His ranger accomplices parted to allow the quartet through.

A table had been set up along the side of the building where an alien blue light illuminated the smooth surface was powered by a portable plasma cell. Ontom crossed his arms standing opposite of the chair where Drew plopped himself down. The air was thick with heavy tension. His two ranger accomplices stood behind him and a third was nearly at gunpoint to Drew. A black cloth bag was set in the center of the table. Drew's case had him busied with the contents. Removing an electronic scale, a few calibration weights and a notebook case that also contained a pencil and a calculator he had finished setting his inspection area before prepping the instruments. More elites, this time dressed in the storm and commander suits were ready to cut down Pyra, Aegis and Roush at the slightest indication from their leader. Tension ran very high in the night.

Ontom placed a hand on the bag before Drew could open it, "Shipmaster, I think that it would be a time to show good faith. I would like to see our weapons."

"That wasn't part of the deal." Pyra said. One of Ontom's ranger aides seemed to scoff.

"A show of faith," Ontom kept his tone with menace, "Goodwill on your part." He removed his hand from the bag, raising a hand. Rustling came from behind the vegetation and one and a half dozen Covenant soldiers emerged from the shadows, consisting of jackals and elites all armed with longer range carbines. "They are capable of killing your crew and taking our weapons anyway. This is just a show of my merciful good faith." He waved them off and they disappeared into the thicket just as quickly as they appeared.

Having no choice, Pyra turned back to the container. Using a crowbar set next to the side, he pried the heavy door open. Ontom, his rangers and a few other infantrymen followed them. Using a flashlight to light up the walls, Pyra stood aside as one of the rangers stepped inside, his pleased expression when seeing the oily reflection of needlers and storm rifles. He slung an unloaded gold fuel rod gun over his shoulder at the group showing off like a model at a trade show. A couple grunts let out an excited squeal and even Ontom had a slight smile creeping on his normally expressionless face.

"That is the extent of my good faith." Pyra gave a subtle gesture.

Ontom nodded, now it was just all the diamond inspection that had to be done.

* * *

**With a very uneasy arms deal with one of the UNSC's most bitter enemies, what have the Blades gotten themselves into?**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose.**


	2. Diplomacy I

**Unknown Location**

**September 30, 2558**

Forerunner soul gems were incredibly valuable in their own civilization as well as most Covenant and human ones as well. Drew spilled the contents of the bag out onto the table. Normally, the stones would emit a deep rainbow of colors, the hue depending on the Forerunner who had worn it. These diamonds however, were encased in hardened rock for hundreds of thousands of years, ugly misshapen lumps that had some colored crystal that appeared in fragments. Drew and Trip instantly noticed that many of them were going to be of less value than normal. Such was the nature of commerce, even in the twenty sixth century. Ontom's Storm Covenant could always get more diamonds, but it was the weapons that were hard to obtain.

Drew grabbed the largest stone, a darker purple that would be approximately sixty thousand depending on the clarity and increased value. He placed a pair of glasses on his nose and twisted it against the light, his lips drooping downwards in a rather displeased expression. Setting it aside without a word, he grabbed a second stone, examining it before taking a third into his other hand. When he set them down, he threw a scornful look at Ontom, opening his notebook and scribbling a few things with the pencil.

"What are you documenting?" The warrior demanded, suddenly irked at the sour presence.

Drew tsked a couple of times, using a well-placed Israeli/Dutch accent, mirroring the diamond centers in Tel Aviv and Amsterdam, "These stones would make better gravel for my fountain than diamonds." The gold armored sangheili felt a surge of anger and reached for his sidearm, a ubiquitous needler, but Drew waved him down, "However, I judge this batch to be sufficient." He reached into a smaller pocket of his case and pulled out a piece of crystal clear quartz.

"Forerunner soul gems are at the same hardness with diamond, hence why they are mixed and related." He thickened his accent slightly as he continued like a lecturer in front of a class, "The Mohs scale rates it as a ten. The piece of quartz here is number seven, extremely common among planets and prone to making the foolish into believing that they are getting a deal of a lifetime." From the same pocket, he produced a scratched piece of topaz. Setting the rock on the table, he put a considerable amount of force on the quartz as he raked the stones together. The edges slid off without a mark. "Topaz is harder than quartz with an eight on the Mohs scale and won't be scratched." He tossed the quartz back into the pocket, now holding one of the smaller gold colored gems. With a spine chilling squeal, the stone bit into the side. "This here is a stone that is harder than quartz."

"That would be diamond." Ontom had a smirk on his face, certain that they would be satisfied.

Instead, Drew let out an annoyed sigh as if a student had just made a stupid comment. "Or perhaps it could be corundum, which is rather common of where you elites come from. Corundum is number nine of Mohs scale. Since I don't have a piece to test it out, I'll need to test the stone's specific gravity."

Ontom unknowingly lowered his guard, exactly what Drew had wanted. He had dealt with their gods soul gems before and his specialty was military tactics and rebellion. Forerunner soul gem knowledge along with diamond was of little use to him and other than the value, he didn't particularly care for its other properties. Perhaps these "Nishum" or parasitic worms were smarter than he was told by 'Mdama. "Specific gravity?"

Drew nodded, making a slight smile, "Specific gravity is a way to display the relative density of a gemstone. It measures the ratio of the stone's weight against the volume of water it displaces. For diamonds it is three point five two." He zeroed his electronic scale and took out another object from his case, a long clear plastic tube, filling it with water from a bottle. When he was done, he dropped the stone inside, jotting down in his notebook from the readings that the electronic display gave. Ontom received a glare from Drew after he tapped a few things into his calculator app on the comlink.

His eyes went wide with anger and he quickly unholstered his weapon. His troops tightened their awareness. Aegis felt the muzzle of a plasma gun against his back.

Meanwhile, the fake jeweler was unfazed by the acts of aggression. "It reads three point five two. It is a real diamond." The soldiers let out a relieved posture and the gun was removed. Trip would have killed Rayson for playing his parts a bit too well. With the same results with four more of the stones, Ontom stood on his feet again, "I have upheld my end of the bargain. The diamonds for the weapons."

Pyra seemed satisfied and left Drew to test more stones. He led the warrior over to the container. With the glare from their armor, he and four of the elites each grabbed a storm rifle and a battery for the weapons, prying open the boxlike containers with their ghostly plasma daggers.

Making sure that he stood nearby the Storm leader, Conan Pyra observed as Ontom and his elites as they test fired the weapons ten times downrange at scrap metal targets that were surprisingly similar in shape to a Spartan. Aegis and Roush stuck nearby Drew, all three wearing Army grade lightweight flak jackets resistant to plasma underneath their clothes. Once they ceased fire downrange having drained about a tenth of their charge, a single grunt inspected the damage and shouted an encouragement echoed by the fellow soldiers. Ontom gave a gruff snarl of approval.

Back at the table, Drew had completed his laborious inspection. Under the vigilant eye of one of the officers, he scooped them back into the bag, placing it onto the scale and subtracting the covering's weight. He looked up at Aegis, "We are a couple of carats short."

Depending on the value down the road, that translated into thousands of credits, but Trip gave a shrug, "I'd just be satisfied that we get the hell out of here in one piece." He gestured to Pyra, who was checking over a needler with one of the grunts. "Captain, I feel that a patrol may be coming this way. We should get going."

"Of course Mr. Aegis." He turned back to Ontom, "Warrior, I wish I could offer you more weapons, but this shipment came as a surprise. Unfortunately, we must get going before this deal is discovered by our adversaries."

The sangheili nodded, "If you come across another of your such shipments, you know how to uh, get ahold of us."

Both men gave each other an awkward handshake as they reached the table, Drew gave them the thumbs up and Pyra dismissed everyone back to their rendezvous point, the entrance to the jungle guarded by two rangers.

Ontom's smile grew into an oily smirk. He had intentionally shorted the amount of diamonds in the amount when Drew had noticed it. He knew that his superior numbers of armed aliens would be enough to intimidate them into accepting fewer stones than what he offered. Such stones were safely stored in areas where their value would multiply and earn their cause even more means of mass destruction to their enemies.

The moment they had turned their back, Ontom's soldiers sprang into action. The two rangers moved to block their exit while nearly a dozen suicide grunts ran from the camp, all howling like animals and carrying the ghostly blue plasma grenades. Following them were dozens of grunts, elites and jackals all armed to the teeth.

The effect would have been quite overwhelming if the Blades weren't expecting a double-cross. The second Ontom ordered his men to attack, a loud crack echoed throughout the jungle. The ranger to the right collapsed from a white bullet trail, his visor smeared from purple blood inside and spilling out of a neat hole punched straight through.

Aegis jumped upwards, yanking the storm rifle and Leah's gun from the second one. Once he delivered a bone cracking hammerfist to the neck, a second shot, this time from a different sniper tore through the shields. Trip and Roush aimed, laying down a wall of cover fire as Pyra and Drew scrambled for cover. His plasma shots sprayed the lead grunt, who fell over, the grenades he carried still primed.

None of the suicide grunts could react in time as the fuses detonated, killing every successive grunt that followed. The blue detonations lit up the night sky and even wiped out a few grunts and jackals that had been advancing too close. The Covenant needed to improve the formations of their suicide squads.

"Like we'd never see this coming." Drew said in a casual tone over the gunfire.

* * *

**Indeed. Deal didn't go so well after all.**

**New intel, a character from the Blades series will appear in the next volume of the Eon series. He/She is a favorite!**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose.**


	3. Diplomacy II

**Unknown location**

**September 30, 2558**

"Give me a sitrep Robertson." Aegis snapped.

"Hostile hingeheads have come up in pursuit." Spartan Kelly Robertson replied, snapping off another shot. She was the sniper that had fired upon the ranger that had blocked their way. Her incredible marksmanship had claimed the life of another sangheili. "Several grunts are now over the container, taking our weapons."

"Good. That's what we want."

"Commander, this is Vasili. We're on standby at the rendezvous point, but we got enemy cruisers inbound."

"Get a pelican there and hold your position. Do not blow your cover unless there is not another option. We can't let the Covenant know of our capabilities."

Since Commander Trip Aegis and executive officer Andrew Rayson were on the ground, the impressive warship that doubled as their mobile base of operations was currently being commanded by their operations director, Vasili Suvorov. Aegis and Vasili's past go a long way back, with quite an interesting tale whenever you hear one of them talk about it. The two were also the best of friends and would never give up on each other.

"Robertson, Aegis. You're clear to fall back to the rendezvous point. See you there."

"Affirmative." She replied. From up top of the high point, the Spartan signaled her partner, a second sniper named Laura McGarrett to fall back.

Their rendezvous point was a clearing beside a beach that curved in a U shape with black water behind. It was a good distance away from their meeting place, giving the team much needed time, but if things went haywire from surrounding them, the fight wouldn't last long.

Aegis halted in his tracks, automatically waving the others off. "Go! I'll draw their attention away from the LZ!"

He sprinted around the tall winding trees, loosely clutching his rifle. The alien chatter split the air between his breathing. As soon as the first targets in pursuit came into view, he squeezed the trigger.

Bullets peppered a pair of grunts, their squeals of pain had attracted the attention of the remaining search parties. He automatically ducked down to avoid the multicolored shots of plasma sizzling over his head. They had left blackened marks on a trunk right behind him.

The outline of a sangheili was visible to him, thanks to his night vision augmentation. Since no Spartan had their armor, their capabilities were more limited, but not entirely negated.

Aegis was formerly an agent in the Office of Naval Intelligence's Section III for years, running some of their most hazardous operations. He later had been augmented as a Spartan-IV just months after its inception. His credentials had fit the requirements and his desire to get back into the armed forces earned him a spot. He remained in a standard Spartan unit, declining the invitation by the Infinity to be stationed on her. Not even the prospect of a high position was enough to coax him into it. He had other ambitions in mind.

In October of 2554, he had proposed to his former ONI handler what he called the Strike Blades, a callsign for a private corporation that would be able to do some of the dirty work. Project Strike Blades was never formally given. Technically, Aegis and the men and women of the corporation were freelancers, but their work and supplies could never be traced to the UNSC or UEG, even if the weapons came from Misriah Armory, the primary weapons company for the expanding human faction. So it was on the ONI's behalf that he and his crew were to be somewhere where they weren't supposed to.

Yanking the charging handle on the side of the assault rifle, Aegis aimed at the elite, pulling the trigger until he saw the shimmering shields flicker away. With that, his right hand went to the M6G handgun hidden inside his shirt and he snapped off a shot that went straight through the reptilian warrior's elongated helmet. As soon as they saw their leader go down in a spray of blood, the whole group of accompanying grunts let out a primal snarl, reaching into their belts to ignite blue explosive spheres.

Aegis had seen this tactic before, it was a mix of boldness and fear causing the grunts to rush their enemy when their leader was killed. They knew that the statistics were stacked against them and they were going to take the killer with them to the grave.

He fired his pistol at the closest grunt, already confident of what would happen.

As soon as he killed the first one, he slumped to the ground, plasma grenades already set to detonate. The others following had no time to avoid the deadly mines. Exploding in a brilliant white flash, the other grunts had dropped their grenades, which in turn had killed those following behind. It was a chain reaction that always worked on the suicide. Since they couldn't run very fast, it was easy to avoid as long as it was expected.

Then he heard a whumping sound. Trip turned to see a volley of scarlet explosives arcing his way. He had to break his cover.

Leaping out of the small trench where he was hiding, he threw himself flat against the dirt just enough to avoid the concussion rifle blasts. More gunfire was heard in the distance, the whining of laser weaponry, followed by the chatter of the ballistic ones.

Aegis' diversion was only partially working.

Leah Roush instantly retracted to cover behind the large boulder once the magazine in her assault rifle ran dry. She reached behind her belt, only feeling one full box remaining.

"Last mag!" She hollered over the gunfire.

The twin snipers overshadowing the deal; McGarrett and Robertson had joined them about thirty seconds before the shots began to fly. "Captain" Conan Pyra ushered Drew to the far back where McGarrett had kept him in check.

So far, Robertson's sniper was keeping the more tactful elites at bay, occasionally hitting their shields and causing them to fall back. The grunts and jackals had weaker body structure and armor, thus falling to only one shot of the lethal anti-material rounds.

Roush gritted her teeth, throwing an M9 fragmentation grenade. She heard it land, using the distraction of it to shower the closest blue armored elite with rounds. It was just simply her bad luck that she forewent taking extra ammo.

The grunts screamed and jumped for cover just as the grenade detonated, spraying lethal shrapnel along with the explosive power. The four grunts closest to the explosive stood no chance and were killed.

"Where the hell is Maverick?" She wondered aloud.

"Right here." A Boston-accented voice drawled in her earpiece. She heard the noise of pelican engines and saw him crossing over the waves as fast as possible. The Blades had two pelican gunships and a modified T-52 phantom dropship of the Covenant to serve as their air arsenal. All three aircraft were modified to boost their capabilities, with the pelicans being able to maneuver faster and the phantom gaining a cloaking shield to render it invisible to most radar except their own.

Maverick let loose with a salvo of chaingun fire and then fired a pair of smoke canisters. Within seconds, a gray screen began to coat the back of the beach. With that done, he twisted around, lowering the ramp.

Conan Pyra helped Drew onboard and provided the remaining members of the crew with covering fire. They hesitated at no point, hopping onboard. Before they had even settled in their seats, Maverick boosted the engines, accelerating across the vast ocean once more.

"Where's the commander?" He yelled back.

"I don't know. He left to create a diversion for the enemy."

* * *

Back at the beach, Ontom steadily crept forward just as the smoke as beginning to fade away. Barking an order at his men to secure the beach he managed to catch a glimpse of a white light slowly heading upwards. It continued to the tips of the clouds before finally vanishing.

He snarled in frustration, they had failed to kill the dealers as well. 'Mdama wasn't going to be happy about this.

It became a prayer for him that the weapon shipment secure would make up for his failure.

* * *

Blake "Maverick" Cariston was the Blades' newest recruit. He'd been with the team for a full year now after their previous pilot's retirement and had entered into a very warm reception of the crew. His time with the 23rd Naval Air Squadron, a legendary unit of airmen and airwomen made him invaluable. He had multiple ratings in almost every aircraft in the UNSC arsenal.

He had gotten his nickname from when he first had met Aegis. The Blades had needed a new pilot for some time and he had posted encrypted messages that they were looking for someone. In those messages, he put a location and time. Only a sharp eye could tell where it was and it was in a flight pattern over Reach. If one were to pinpoint the coordinates straight down, it led to a bar called the Singapore Sling in New Alexandria's Briarton Mall. The only two numbers were left out once a response was put in, 3 and 1. Once the signal was responded, it meant that he would meet there at 1500 hours the next day at that location or roughly three in the afternoon.

Turns out that Maverick had figured it out pretty well. Aegis met him the next day precisely at the time and place he had posted. He had a hotshot behavior, but also a responsibility for his vehicles and the crew who manned them. Thus, the old movie, "Top Gun" had come to mind and the nickname stuck.

"Maverick this is Aegis."

"Go ahead."

"I'm in a little bit of a tight spot here." Aegis must've been firing his gun because his words were cut out by the gunshots. "Just be ready to pick me up at a moment's notice."

"You're gonna have to make it soon." Maverick glanced at the fuel display, "I've only got enough fuel to barely make it back."

"Just hang on."

Aegis strafed to his left when the elite fired the T-50 concussion rifle again. The closest grenade to him detonated, sending him flying out of control. Fortunately, he had landed in a shoulder roll and on a knee, fluidly fired his sidearm. The sangheili's shields flared, but didn't break.

"Damn." He muttered, wishing the elite would come in close. Since the concussion rifle would hurt the user at close range, this elite was smart staying at an arm's reach and pumping out rounds to keep him at bay.

"Maverick? Be ready to pick me up!"

"Yes commander!"

The elite had the reddish headdress of a commander and he let out a dark chuckle, even though he couldn't see his human adversary.

In the distance he heard Maverick's pelican approaching. Looking back to the elite, he saw that it was placing a new drum into the chamber of the weapon. He wasn't going to be able to continue dancing a dodging game like this.

He still had his laser pointer on the magnum. It would have to do.

Just as the elite stepped forward, Trip turned on the laser and put it on the alien's combat harness. He looked in surprise at the tiny red line seeming to emanate out from nowhere and chuckled when he heard the click of an empty weapon. Aegis had actually emptied the clip and made it seem like he was a helpless person.

"I got him."

Just as the elite let out a bloodthirsty snarl, Aegis threw himself flat against the ground, just as Maverick hovered above the trees and squirted off a brief burst with his machine gun.

The elite stood no chance, chewed up by the one hundred rounds fired. It was a gruesome sight and smelled burnt flesh that was enough to make him gag. The remains were just a mangled pile of flesh and broken armor.

"You okay boss?" Maverick asked.

"I'm fine, let's just get the hell out of here."

* * *

**The danger isn't over just yet!**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing. You give my writing purpose.**


	4. Persistence I

**Unknown Location**

Haley Liston was completely terrified.

There was just no computing way that this could've happened.

It started out just as another nightmarish dream, the newest of the many that plagued her sleep months on end. One moment she was out with her friends having an enjoyable time, the next she wakes up in the medical wing of the resort with the doctor lying down at the room's floor entrance, covered in a pool of his own blood. Now it was all too real and it easily outclassed any nightmares in the past.

Liston found her arms shaking. She had seen her fair share of apocalyptic forms of entertainment, but the death of the doctor was all too real. Even worse, the entire building was eerily silent. She never heard anyone walking or talking.

She was only twenty-three years of age, growing up at a place far away from the war-torn planets. Now with the conflict over, she had joined a prestigious university, enrolling in dual majors of communications and business.

The stay at the resort was her best friend's idea. While it seemed nice to lounge on the beaches and look at cute boys, she suspected that Isabelle knew that a particular boy was staying with his friends as well. She had practically groaned when Kyle had been in the sun, topless putting a wolfish grin upon seeing Isabelle brazenly approaching him in her red bikini.

Aside from her friend's crush, Haley had to admit that until now, the Sub-Aqua resort was a very nice touch, featuring the top of this unique beach getaway as a hotel that would run underwater in the clearest parts of the ocean possible. Many colorful forms of wildlife would be viewable from the customizable dimming glass panes in the spiderweb of tubes that were several inches thick to keep the water pressure from ever caving if it took a serious pounding. Ports were everywhere for all ocean based activities, surfing, waterskiing and Haley's personal favorite, scuba-diving.

Within five hours, the resort had turned from a happy, cheerful place full of jubilant men, women and children into a gloomy barren abandoned warehouse. The exterior had hardly changed in that time, but it was a scene of a massacre when someone went inside the sole building on the island.

The blood pool was unavoidable if she wanted to find safety in her own room. Since the shoes that the doctor wore were too large, she was going to have to go barefoot.

Her face turned to one of disgust and horror when the blood made contact with the sole of her foot. Trying her best not to think about it, she grasped the doorside and moved through. Looking down, Haley nearly fainted from fright.

The blood was black.

* * *

At the same time, Maverick was flying blind. Not blind as in unable to see, but rather flying through clouds at midnight blind. However, there was no real reason for him to panic. He ran a check on instruments every ten minutes to make sure everything was okay. Even in the midst of combat, he always spared the time, however brief to make sure his ride wasn't malfunctioning. When he saw the confirmation order of the Blades' new AV-14 Hornet, he automatically dibbed on flying it first.

In front, the pelican had finally cleared the cloud cover spanning forever into the horizon. The familiar dark shape of the UNSC _Ballista_ loomed straight ahead, hangars open and anticipating their arrival.

As soon as Maverick began to power down the engines, Aegis and Rayson immediately lowered the hatch from inside the cabin, practically sprinting towards the bridge. As they crossed the hangar, crewmen were using lifts and shifting aged-looking shipping containers to obscure the dropship from outside viewers.

The corridor they strode through was dimly lit, with a thin layer of dust on the chipped linoleum floor. Aegis found a hidden door and turned inside. It appeared as a janitorial style closet with a broom, buckets and half-empty containers of cleaning fluid that was actually dyed water. The small water pump had a valve that was twisted into the drained bucket below. The action when turned correctly unlocked a door that led to a corridor straight behind.

The old saying of ugly is only skin deep rang quite true for the UNSC _Ballista_ and her crew. They were far from the pressured skeleton operators of a dilapidated ship. The _Ballista _was formerly a high-capacity stealth frigate. One of the short-lived Guardian class conceived just a couple years before the Covenant encounter, she was modified to maneuver behind enemy lines and fight off larger attackers if ever discovered. The Guardians were scrapped, but the _Ballista_'s new life was only just beginning.

Aegis had purchased her at an auction, of course with all the ONI sensitive data and devices purged from her innards. He took it to the planet Vola where she was refitted in a private drydock that aroused no suspicion from even those working on her.

Her outer appearance was definitely ugly. Paint wasn't completely mismatched, but it was clear that her master had intentioned a bad taste combo in a gray and forest green. In reality, the paint helped to buffer incoming radar waves to mask its signature. If that wasn't enough to fool the enemy, the _Ballista_'s active camo system was just as good as the ones on a Covenant stealth corvette.

The old engines were removed, replaced by the latest cutting edge powerplants that could provide power effortlessly to the new drivers, ship electronics and advanced shielding. The energy shield was hardened to protect against a magnetic pulse disruptor. The reactor's output was tremendous, similar to new ones outfitted on advanced UNSC warships. It required no coolant pipes, rather pumping the heat into space, where it would dissipate. It was a minor flaw, but the _Ballista_ could be detected if someone was using top-grade thermal scanners. However the engines would be able to cool themselves as well and it increased the more the engines were worked.

As for the interior, it was just as luxurious as any four-star hotel, the kitchen staff trained at le Cordon Bleu; she probably had the best kitchen on a ship.

As for the crew, all of them were handpicked by Aegis himself, usually veterans and best of the best. Sure if he had told someone whom he'd never met before that, it would roll off as a cliché. In this case, it was entirely true. He believed that no other man or woman in their positions did their job better. If there ever was that, he'd go to the ends of the system to find that individual.

The majority of the senior staff was clustered around the meeting table when Trip and Drew had practically barged in. Everyone was present, save for Spartan Sofia Inselton, an Estonian medic who seldom attended meetings unless she was partaking in them.

Aside from acting as captain in lieu of the other officer's absent, Vasili Suvorov was a veteran ONI agent in Section III, the same part where Aegis was employed. While the two had never met prior to the Blades' conception, they both had heard harrowing tales of narrow escapes and tight situations had left a lot of respect to be paid. And paid it was.

Suvorov was also augmented as a Spartan as well, being a couple of years younger. He had an ability to meticulously carry out missions and even in reflex, always knew whatever he was doing. No detail that was too small ever escaped his attention and the intense concentration allowed him to penetrate well into many infamous terrorist networks, avoiding some of the most ruthless secret police groups ever to exist.

"What's the status on our ONI rendezvous contact?"

Vasili gave them a nod before sitting in his seat, "Their response was to move to this location and then nothing else. I assume that they'll be partaking the tracking markers there."

What the Storm Covenant hopefully didn't know was that near the muzzle of the weapons that the Blades had just delivered were hidden tags. ONI's real goal was to track their movements and locate important factions that were supposedly relayed to UNSC command.

"You know how the spooks like to lay low."

Alongside Suvorov were the ship's best handler, Danny Tyler and his partner-in-crime, Luke Riley, the one in charge of the awesome firepower the _Ballista_ carried. The two were in their twenties and an inseparable pair, working together as if brothers. Both were excellent with computers and resident hackers.

The communications officer, newly-hired Tongju was in deep discussion with Pyra and Vaal Talam, a massively built sangheili who headed the group of ex-Spec Ops sangheili that operated with the crew. Aegis and Vaal worked extremely well together, leaving few doubts of their capabilities. All tension of human and elite working against one another had been put aside. Onboard, the Blades treated one another like family. Respect was key, no matter ethnicity or species.

"Helm, what's our ETA?" Aegis asked, just as they stood to adjourn.

"The ONI rendezvous site puts us at around eleven hundred tomorrow. There's a couple of freighter traffic that's lingering around, but it was considered thick as in New York City rush hour."

"Good, take us out of atmosphere and prepare for slipspace jump as soon as you're clear."

Although the _Ballista_ was fully capable of atmospheric-slipspace jumps, the process was considered risky and he needed no mistakes to happen.

Aegis and the majority of the bridge crew reported to their stations. The room straight below a makeshift mess-hall was in a pyramid shape, with the commander sitting at the top with other essential functions more spread out on a lower level. He sat down in his command seat, relieved as soon as the cameras showed that _Ballista_ had finally broken atmosphere. To his right was a pair of freighters, lazily moving around orbit. No sign of the Covenant cruisers. They might just be able to get away after all.

Then Tongju gave out a frantic cry, "We have a contact! Heading of three zero at Alpha ten!"

Aegis adrenaline began to course through his veins already. The Covenant had been waiting for their arrival and had used cover to cloak their two attacking light cruisers.

"I've detected launch! Two plasma torpedoes! One on a heading straight for us! Another one headed straight for the _Miss Belle_!"

The situation just turned from bad to worse. There was more than six miles separating the two ships from the plasma torpedoes. It was more than enough for the _Ballista_ to maneuver out of, but the freighters had quite a horrid turning trait that made them a sitting duck. Add the crew onboard plus cargo and it was already going to be a huge incident.

"Third launch! It's headed for the Premiax fuel containership _Pike_!"

He would've been able to handle one or two torpedoes, the frigate's shields were strong enough to take a direct hit. Either the _Miss Belle_ or the_ Pike_ was going to be hit and with her full load of volatile fuel, there was no way in hell that he was allowing it to be the tanker.

"That's a fourth launch." Tongju had been interrupted from his sending out warnings to the other two ships, "This one's going a lot slower than the others."

"It's going to see what the others miss." Drew looked up in familiarity at the display, "Then it moves in to finish off."

It was a simple tactic, especially employed by the Covenant in devastating ways. The concept was that the three torpedoes would go out to assault initial targets. Any ship not wise enough to avoid it would be destroyed. If it managed to dodge the fire, the reserve salvo would then nail it.

Any way of defense was obsolete, especially Aegis and his crew having to defend themselves as well as two other unarmed ships. He now wished he had heeded the warnings along with the other ships that they were heading into territory that Covenant were operating in.

* * *

**Can the Blades stop the attack and prevent a headlining incident?**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing. You give my writing purpose.**


	5. Persistence II

**Unknown Location**

**September 30, 2558**

"Estimate time of impact by the torpedoes?"

Leah spun around, "We've got about three minutes before it hits."

"The _Miss Belle_?"

"Roughly another half minute."

Aegis now sat up completely straight, his eyes set in a laser focus and decision made. He had no idea if his tactic was going to work, but there wasn't time to contemplate. The _Pike_ had another mile compared to the other two ships, but it still wouldn't be enough for her to get away.

"Helm, increase our speed to fifty and begin to move us outward." He noted that during their briefing of the arms deal, the orbiting atmospheric moon would provide ample lighting to help their escape if it ever went south. Details were always overlooked.

The moon was essentially a blue sphere with thin white wisps of clouds. Half of it was obscured in nightly darkness. However, it now played a key part in his own strategy.

"We're abandoning them?" Dan had a look of disbelief on his face.

"No, just move us out."

"Aye."

The _Ballista_ gave a rumble and she slowly progressed towards the edges of the moon, where the night half was beginning.

"Wepps, arm two Archer missiles and set them to idle before we round the moon."

"Affirmative." Riley tapped a couple of commands into his computer, "Missiles are hot."

"Launch and set targets to the incoming torpedoes."

The missiles had been fired just as the _Ballista_ rounded the moon's shadow. The guidance systems inside communicated with Riley's computer for targeting.

"Helm, reduce speed and put us on a turning radius for one-eight-zero. We're going back into the fight."

The _Ballista_ accelerated straight around, just as the twin missiles ignited, taking off, leaving smoky white trails behind them.

It seemed like the space between the incoming Covenant torpedoes came alive. The plasma seemed to burn through itself as it adjusted for final targeting sequence. Onboard the bridge, Luke scrolled upwards to maximize the Archer's speed.

Both of the missiles slammed head-on straight into the burning plasma. Normally, the missiles would have been a worthless measure to stop them, but now they were equipped to counteract the heated plasma. The explosive detonated in a giant cloud of purple and white.

Even through the closed confines of the bridge, the crew heard the big booms as if trains were rolling directly overhead.

Aegis looked over to Drew, "That bought us about thirty seconds. Options?"

"We could fire directly upon the ship. She's the one over there." He pointed to the idle cruiser, hovering just out of the planet's atmosphere unmoving. Inside the bridge, the Covenant crew was guiding its own school of fish to their targets. Its wingman hung further back, likely observing for flanking threats.

"Anything else?"

"The torpedoes must be guided by controls within the ship. Sever the ship and the plasma's safety mechanisms will fail. The torpedo will simply burn out."

"You can't be proposing…"

"Exactly." Drew cracked an evil grin, "Sink the motherfuckin cruiser."

Aegis looked back at the holotank's tactical display. The reserve torpedo had now doubled in speed, changing a slight angle to make her way over to the _Ballista_. The _Pike _was under a more dramatic situation, she was going to be hit in less than a minute.

He had no idea if any weapons from their deal were onboard. If it were, then he had to ironically keep the enemy alive that would be killed later.

"Tong, can you scan those ships and see if those tags are responding yet?"

"They're not set to start their transmission for another five hours."

Aegis sighed, sweat starting to coat his palms as the torpedo neared the _Pike_. "You sure it will work?"

"Of course not." Drew replied, "Those cruisers were decommissioned after the war so the elites don't have their Prophets to reboot it. It's essentially a flawed sangheili copy of the weapon and it's much more crude and straightforward. Just giving you an option like you asked. Commander."

"Don't you "Commander" me."

"Well I won't be able to "Commander" you anymore if we don't do something!"

"I'm going to kiss you or curse you forever in hell in the next minute." Aegis said, looking over to Riley. "Wepps, arm torpedo tube one with the hostile. Match bearings and fire!"

"Firing!" With a blast from the tube that was situated from the frigate's bow, the six foot missile shot out of her tube before igniting. The torpedo gained speed before quickly accelerating downrange. The speed was nearly double that of the Covenant's.

"Be ready with the self-destruct."

"Wait you don't want to sink the cruiser?"

It was a no-brainer that the Storm Covenant remnant had declared a war against the UNSC, so causing an incident like this was just another headliner that nobody ever really paid attention to.

"Cause an incident bigger than what's happening? No. I just want to put some venom into their hide and be enough to discourage them again."

The timing was complex, but Aegis had a handle on it. If he detonated the torpedo too early, there was a chance it would fail to sever the connection to the assault torpedoes. Too late and he could lose a major lead on the weapons tracking. For all he knew, some of the tagged guns were already aboard, since the Covenant had learned to fear boarding actions during the course of the war and typically ship crew's weren't armed as well as the ground forces.

"Standby." He turned the display over to the _Pike_ where the torpedo's burning streak could be seen in the same feed. The reserve salvo headed for the _Ballista_ was still more than a mile out.

"Do it."

Luke hit the button that sent the explosion signal to the torpedo. It received it just as it finalized its homing systems and zoomed in on the ship's unprotected ventral side. A nanosecond later, the remaining fuel combusted into a orange explosion that caused the ship's shields to flare up.

"Roush, status?"

"I'm getting alarms blaring." He had posted her on the sonar part. "Looks like it worked! Weapon safeties have overridden the firing solutions."

Drew's plan was a success. The controls had been disabled in the Covenant cruiser, shutting down any feed the torpedoes had and causing safeties to kick in, effectively burning out the weapons.

"I'm hearing alien chatter."

Aegis turned to Tongju, "Getting anything?"

"They're not very secretive. Mainly general distress. The life support systems are barely keeping up with the damage. They've called for assistance from their base over Requiem, but her commander hasn't ordered any more firing solutions."

A round of cheers and applause came from the bridge and Drew found himself grinning over his normally cynical face.

"What about the sister ship?"

"Oh shit." The Korean barely had that curse out of his mouth before he checked the display, "She's coming around! Weapons hot!"

The danger wasn't over yet. Now her fellow ship was preparing to fire in retaliation of the fallen vessel. Well it wasn't fallen, but unable to act on her own.

Suddenly, a laser seemed to strike out of nowhere. The lance of energy impacted the better cruiser on her left side, seeming to go straight through the shields. The engines detonated, imploding as the vacuum of space ripped loose debris through the gaping hole. Fires raged out the sides of the disabled vessel.

The first cruiser was now visible again after the clouds had cleared. Her underside was charred black and the shields sparked, failing to recharge again.

"What the hell?" Trip was about to stand, but found himself back in the command chair in total disbelief. "It can't be."

"Commander, I'm getting a priority private hail from an unknown origin. Says Alpha Wolf one zero one."

Aegis' hand tightened on the armrest, "Isolate that signal." Tongju handed him a headset and he strapped it on.

"The Alpha Wolf wishes for a whisper." A male voice spoke just as he had clamped it over his ears.

"And the whisper only drifts with the wind." It was actually a rare response given to him in the Section III times.

The main display suddenly winked out, causing the crew to look around in confusion. It was replaced just as quickly with a woman's figure, topped by a face that Aegis knew too well. Behind her was a gray metal wall with the symbol he himself used to wear on his uniform when not in the field.

"Your reputation precedes you Commander Aegis." The woman smiled thinly. She had a face that somewhat resembled Turkish origins, but nobody knew her exact ethnicity. She didn't even know her real name, but the name she adopted was one that was going to be feared like her predecessor.

Aegis returned the warm emotion. It was the ONI way of French greetings of bise. "Admiral Osman. This is certainly a surprise. I was told that I would be meeting our ONI rep lightyears and hours away from here. Never expected the head of the intelligence out here all by herself."

"Commander, don't you like having friendly neighbors?"

"I do. Thanks for the assist."

"You're most welcome." Osman said. "If you don't mind, I prefer to do trade far away and on my own boat. You know the drill, come unarmed and nothing bad will happen."

"Will do." Aegis knew what she meant. He turned to Dan Tyler, "Plot us a course behind the moon."

As the _Ballista_ moved, Drew leaned by Aegis' chair and whispered, "You have a history with her?"

Raising an eyebrow in response, Aegis asked, "Define history for me."

"You want the straightforward version or the smart-assed one?"

"Whichever floats your boat."

Drew gave an annoyed sigh, just like the one he had done for Ontom back on the ground. "Fine." He added in his accent impression, "Were you under her command?"

"No, she commanded her own unit, whom I've never met before. We've worked together on a few ops."

"Sounds fun."

"You wouldn't know the half of it."

He made his way over to the hangar bay which had opened and the pressurized shields active. Newly created, thanks to reverse-engineered Covenant technology, this shield kept the internal pressure and the vacuum of space out while keeping air cycled and allowing ships to pass through when active on low power. Since he was going alone, the hangar crew were all that accompanied him. If they were here to board and takeover the _Ballista_, the retinal scanners to the actual part of the ship would instantly deny them any access. Hopefully his disguise of a rotten vessel was enough to deter.

There were a couple of sangheili set to watch over the precession. Aegis would be going to Osman's ship to conduct business so he was on his own once he left the hangar.

A few minutes of waiting preceded a pelican arriving through the hangar bay, communicating with Roush at the bridge for traffic control and permission to land. The dropship looked heavily modified, much more angular than a standard and Aegis saw the words "Tart-Cart" spray painted on the fuselage in bold white letters that heavily contrasted the dark steel color.

The hatch opened and Trip stepped inside, clutching the case that prevented the ONI spooks from shooting him on sight.

* * *

**I apologize for updating slower than normal. New job has been obtained and it has me working three 6 hour shifts on weekdays and one 12 hour shift on the weekends.**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose.**


	6. Persistence III

**UNSC **_**Port Stanley**_

**September 30, 2558**

The UNSC _Port Stanley _was a highly sophisticated corvette that served as the Office of Naval Intelligence's mobile headquarters. Admiral Serin Osman was ONI's head and the vessel was her flagship.

It was armed to the teeth with modified Rudra Nukes, Shiva Missiles and a prototype laser cannon that was probably ending up to be standard issue on ships fifty years away.

This was her show now and she was calling the shots. For nearly five years now, her tutor, Admiral Margaret Orlenda Parangosky had left ONI, having groomed Osman for the very job she was doing now.

The Covenant remnant had not been intended to be a threat to humanity. When she had captured 'Mdama, he was to stay in captivity, until he had mysteriously escaped. Now he was waging a very vicious war on Requiem and a dozen other fronts to resume the Covenant's genocidal campaign against humanity. So part of it was her mess as well.

She brushed aside the thought of the deaths of many soldiers stationed aboard Infinity that had been killed because of her. It wasn't the first time it had to be done.

"Tart-Cart to _Port Stanley_." The pilot radioed.

"Go ahead Tart-Cart."

"Cargo Tango Alpha secure. We're inbound on a two seven zero vector."

"Hangar two is open, clear to proceed. Deck team is standing by." She turned to a pedestal that was projecting an avatar of a featureless rectangular box in bluish light, "Black Box, please activate Hangar Two cameras."

"Sure thing. It's gonna be exiting meeting Commander Aegis in person!" The male voice of the ship's AI exclaimed in both a disembodied and excited tone.

Osman examined the display, just as the pelican known as Tart-Cart had touched down on the deck. One person went out to meet it.

The first thing Aegis was greeted with was the sight of a clear hangar bay. The lone man who came out to greet him had a sour look on his face. His only weapon was a Misriah black finished sidearm that had its safety on.

"Commander Aegis." He spoke in a British accent. "Osman wants to meet up with you."

Trip saw him reach over towards the silver case that he carried in his left hand. He held up his own hand, "No bellhop please."

The Brit sighed and turned around, "Follow me."

He led Aegis to the hangar's exit doors and through a couple of winding corridors. Drew had once commented that prowlers were a rotten way to make a living. In contrast, Pyra had responded that he had been stationed on fast attack prowlers that had better conditions than the hotels that he used to stay at.

Brit held the door to a small chamber open for Aegis to enter and sealed it behind after entering himself.

The room had gold painted walls and many shadows, large enough for a hunter to lurk in without being detected unless someone really strained to make out details.

"Hands up." Another voice came from the shadows, this time it was Russian accented.

Another man, most likely the Russian stepped out of the shadows, gesturing for Aegis to do exactly what he commanded.

ONI was always paranoid. There was no telling if an ex-agent running a private mercenary group was going to turn rogue on them. Then again, this was the ship that belonged to the head of ONI.

"You don't comply." Ivan jerked his thumb to another corner of the shadow, "You'll have to deal with this."

A third figure, much larger than the other two seemed to come out of nowhere. It was a Spartan fully decked out in MJOLNIR armor. He couldn't tell the gender of whomever, but he/she towered over him almost by a full head. In the Spartan's hands was a purple stun baton. Aegis knew the effects of the suppression device too well.

Casually lowering his briefcase, he made sure to use enough caution to keep the wary trio at bay. It seemed enough for the Russian to run a quick scan for weapons.

Aegis had only carried a sidearm with him, which ended up getting relieved, even though the safety was on. The two men then opened the door, gesturing him to head outside. The Spartan remained silent and almost motionless.

"Apologies for such a harsh welcome." Osman greeted at the end of the table as Aegis was ushered in. "We take no chances here. You have my word that your sidearm will be waiting for you once you depart."

"Weapons costs aren't a big deal with us." Aegis smiled. "We have plenty more aboard our own ship."

"Hmm." Osman pursed her lips, "Can I get you some coffee?"

"Black please."

Osman turned around, "You hear that BB?"

"Of course I did. Am I the waiter for two on a date?" A cynical voice asked.

"Just get coffee for our guest." She turned back around, "Don't mind BB. He's full of himself."

"BB?"

"Our AI aboard Stanley."

"I see." He took an appreciative sip of the steaming cup Osman brought over. "This ONI coffee?" The head of the intelligence nodded, "Just like I remember it. Stims paranoia." That was one thought he and the admiral shared. The agency's own brand of coffee had that speculation, but tasted similar to the roasts originating from Jamaica.

"So Commander, did you success the mission?"

"I sure did." Aegis popped open the silver case, the same types of those you'd see in casinos. Instead of a poker set or stacks of currency, there was a foldable computer. The display on there monitored tags embedded inside the weapons that they just armed the Storm Covenant with. They would transmit in roughly seventy-two hours and last up to five days before the power sources overloaded and the burnt out enough for any forensic to scratch their head on origin and function.

Osman studied the screen, "How many weapons are tagged?"

"Every three out of four."

"I suppose this will suffice. I'd hate for you to put your team at risk again."

Aegis tapped the computer, "We'll do it if we need to. You know our fees."

"Not necessary." Osman took a case identical to the one he brought and opened it up to slide over to his side. Aegis examined the neat stacks of UNSC credits arranged inside. While the main currency of the UEG was usually carried around on "credit chips" or cards that automatically kept money accountable, this had to be an untraceable transfer. ONI was risking nothing.

"It's been a pleasure doing business with you." Aegis stood up, draining his coffee. Osman shook his hand once more and escorted him out to the pelican. The Russian handed him back his sidearm just as he stepped into the cabin. "If you need to get hold of us, you know the drill."

She gave him thumbs up and a casual wave once the pelican started up, slowly exiting the bay until it vanished into the void. The Spartan washout never put a second envious thought on what she could have been, a massive walking tank. She never held any animosity towards Naomi, Fred or John. They all were essentially what her life could have been. Then it came down upon her and Halsey saw fit to toss away the broken sword instead of attempting to repair it. She had given the forces around Requiem the authorization to terminate her and she began wondering how the progress on that was going.

Five minutes later Osman watched the display of Tart-Cart returning alone and turned around to BB, "Still got the coffee hot?"

* * *

**UNSC **_**Ballista **_**in the United System**

**October 1, 2558**

Doctor Sofia Inselton flinched as another rattle of shots echoed through the room. This room was limited to only those who went out in the field. Even though she was a Spartan, using weapons was rare for her. It never was her thing to wield weapons to take the life of another individual. Of course if the other one was trying to kill her, she wouldn't hesitate.

The lighting was flourescent and it seemed to make the narrow hallway even longer, despite only having room for three shooters plus targets.

Inselton wasn't much of a shooter herself but she has to be proficient from weapons training, even as a medic. There were the basics; Pistols had to be handled like backups, Assault rifles required more control in automatic, Battle Rifles depended on accuracy and launchers had to be clear before firing. All others were dependent on the type of weapon for control, accuracy and impact on the opposition. This range only was limited to bullet ammunition despite the armored walls that would absorb a stray shot in case it ricocheted. Explosives were never used in the range, but there was blast minimization material that made it virtually soundproof, even if one had put their ear to the closed door.

She paused as another burst came from the far end. The lone shooter wore a pair of black ear protectors clamped over his head and his gold polarized goggles hid his focused black eyes, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. The BR85HB SR rifle in his hands had more kick than its older counterparts, but a more powerful punch and this required a very delicate handling. There was a select fire option that put the weapon into the three stages of safe, burst and full auto. Most of the time, it functioned best on burst fire. Putting it in automatic caused a decrease in maneuverability due to the long barrel. The increased range also made it more difficult to control, especially when the automatic fire would constantly kick the weapon upwards.

When she peered over, Trip was using fast moving targets to make the exercise even more difficult. At the rate he was firing the rifle; it was pushing the limitations of even Spartan augmented senses. Then again, he had taken it upon himself as an challenge to be conquered.

She knew the medical status of everyone aboard the ship and had to guess that Aegis' reactivity was more than what anyone else could've done. Once he had taken Vaal Talam down in a judo move before he even had a chance to swing the dummy sword.

Aegis tossed the clip away and slid in a new one, fluidly yanking down on the charging handle. He must've heard her because now he began aiming in frenzy in a last sprint kind of deal for accuracy, despite the uncontrollable nature, he made each shot count. The sound of bullets striking targets now seemed to melt into one of metal shredding into metal.

The weapon's bolt clacked back and he jerked out of his firing stance, hitting a button on the side to halt the moving targets.

"Whew." He exhaled a long breath, removing the ear protectors. "Last time I checked, I could go three times as fast."

"I was fooled." Sofia smiled, handing him a wet cloth on the side.

"Been here for a half hour. Should've seen me with the DMR."

"And half an hour ago, I would've missed my fitness schedule if I was here."

"Hmm." Aegis returned the warm smile, "Well you don't look dressed for target practice and I'm not the person to compliment on that excellent lobster rolls we had for dinner so obviously, there's something on your mind."

"I suppose you can say that." Sofia looked around to make sure that nobody else was in the range. "There's been an issue. Well more of Drew's issue, but I fear that it concerns all of us."

Trip set the battle rifle down in the weapon lockers sitting on the opposite side of the range's wall. He nodded, signifying that his attention was on her. "What's up?"

"Well…Drew….Drew got a call from his ex-wife about two hours ago."

"Which one?" Rayson had four wives over his long time of marriages. It wasn't a joking subject, he always stayed as devoted to his spouse as possible, however nearly each one had the same consequences of divorce.

"Jennifer. The third one which he had the kids with. He told me that she believes that someone had abducted their son."

Drew had briefly told Aegis about Jennifer and the three children he had sired. He had two daughters and a son and had lived a very happy and respectful life in the northern area of Seattle on Earth. He had always told his wives that he worked for a small shipping company which meant that none of his wives or children knew exactly what he had truly did. It didn't seem connected to a past mission the Blades conducted, but they had crossed swords with some powerful enemies who would jump at the chance to bring their group down. 'Mdama's Storm Covenant included.

"Has there been a ransom demand or any word from the kidnappers?"

"No. She wants his help on getting the kid back, but has gotten nowhere with the URNA intelligence groups or the Seattle Police Department."

Drew's son would be around his early twenties by now. His daughters were a couple years older. He had divorced Jennifer by the time he had joined Aegis and the Blades. Trip remembered meeting her on a couple of occasions, a notable example was a famous Seattle seafood restaurant. He knew exactly why Drew had fallen in love with her. She wasn't as young as a picture that he showed him on their wedding day, but the light brown hair elegantly flowed over the stark white dress that she wore was simply stunning. Her warm brown eyes were said by him to have heated up any chilly winter. He didn't know the specifics, but Drew had told him something had slowly changed her from a loving woman to a paranoid who frequently had accused him of cheating while it was herself who was committing affairs and infidelity.

With the children in question, Drew had paid above and beyond for support. On his two daughters, they had both became bright ambitious individuals. Samantha was studying oceanic science in Florida and Kim was newly promoted to become the assistant director of the URNA's Colonial Natural Resources Department. However, his son named Chase was a different story. He was one of those people who believed that life was in debt to him. No matter how he was approached, every offer for helping him find his way into society had been turned down.

Aegis knew that Drew would do anything to help the kid and already knew why he had approached Sofia with the issue. Had he went directly to Aegis, he was fearing that Trip would offer the Blades' full services. Drew would never ask for that type of favor, no matter the problem.

Aegis sighed, Drew could be quite stubborn. Sofia had to explain that this was only this problem and not the Blades' thus he would handle it on his own.

"So what does he intend now?"

"When he has the chance, he will ask you to divert to Criterion, the closest colony with intercolonial flights where he'd connect at Eridanus II to New York and then Seattle. After that, he hasn't told me much else."

Although he believed that he could be at Eridanus II for the connecting flight, flying commercial would be faster from Criterion. That meant that he would have to give up weapons and other contraband, but he had plenty of contacts in Seattle to cover that aspect.

"I appreciate you doing this Sofia." Aegis put a hand on her shoulder, "I'll speak with him and make sure he at least has a plan and do whatever I can to assist. You know, one day I fear that Drew is going to get himself into trouble if he remains as stubborn and unwilling as he is now. This time, I think we saved him."

* * *

**I'm assuming that Osman and the crew of Kilo-Five remain as a unit (Mal, Vaz, Naomi, Lian and BB)**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing. You give my writing purpose.**


	7. Sub-Aqua I

**UNSC _Ballista_**

**October 1, 2558**

Aegis sipped at his coffee that had materialized by his side. Courtesy of Francois, the steward had a habit of being unnaturally stealthy. He vowed one day to put a bell on him.

Danny Tyler and Luke Riley were discussing something in private at their stations next to one another. Tongju gave him thumbs up, slitting his throat to indicate that they were in a dead zone in space. He hadn't heard from another ship in seven hours. Unlike the tension after the weapons tracking deal, the room had a relaxed feeling. Their next job was an overwatching job of a transfer of ancient artifacts in the fabled Golden Dragon casino in Macau.

Drew came down from his own cabin and sat in his seat. His presence seemed to chill the room with a silence and never had a word to anyone.

Aegis let it slide for a few minutes before Tongju came up to him, fingerprint covered datapad in hand.

"We've picked up a distress call originating from the moon of United Alpha coded Uniform Alpha." He reported.

"What distress?" He had ordered _Ballista_ over the gas giant of United Alpha. While the planet itself wasn't fit for colonization, its moons of Uniform Alpha, Uniform Delta and Uniform Echo had watery surfaces with very little land. It was known much for being a place to be far away from troubles. Resorts and population were few and having private islands was quite common, ever since threats were seldom present this far away from Earth and they were spaced out plenty in preservation of privacy. Military presence was also sparse, having a United Alpha naval station consisting of a trio of frigates and a heavy destroyer.

"I don't know exactly the details since it was just a burst before vanishing."

Aegis let it pass for now. He had more pressing issues to go with. "Run a scan from the origin and get back to me."

"I'm on it." He rushed off. Now he had to prepare for a very heated conversation.

"I don't want to hear another word about it." Drew snapped when Trip approached him from behind. Automatically, Vaal Talam had emerged from the hallways at the moment and settled himself into the command chair. Since Aegis was busy, he automatically assumed the role of captain/shipmaster.

"We'll set a course for Criterion ASAP. In the meantime, I'll get Riley to book us two tickets back to Seattle. Our next job is straightforward at Macau in a couple of days. Vaal and Leah will be able to handle it without us."

"I don't think you understand." Drew coldly replied, "This is not your fight. I don't want to ask this type of favor from you because it would mean more expenses from the Blades' full services. This is something I need to do on my own and you're not going to stop me."

"I sure as hell am. The last thing I need for this company is for one of its top members to needlessly risk themselves because of their stubborn decision."

"Chase is my family…"

"I know. Someone kidnapped a member of your family. To me it's like they just abducted one of my parents. I'd accept nothing less than your help so do not expect me to not be here for you." Aegis' words would later come back to bite him.

Drew looked back at him, "Thanks Trip. I'm really grateful."

* * *

An hour later, Aegis turned back to Tongju to obtain the details, the matter with Drew now settled.

"What do you have for me?"

"I've pinpointed the origin coming from a lake's center on Uniform Alpha's largest isolate island. It looks to be an abandoned retreat. Judging by the waves lapping against the sides, I'm estimating that it could be a very good salvage fee."

Aegis was intrigued. He'd leave a prize crew for the scrapping authorities while they moved on to Seattle and Macau.

"We might just do that."

* * *

Drew had just put down his comlink when Aegis knocked on the door of his cabin. When he stepped in, he was always amazed at how his architecture worked so well in tandem. It was reminiscent of a Munich style apartment with simple features, yet added an odd high-tech vibe. To the left of the entrance was a workbench. This was the only industrial part of his entire room. A sliding door would cover up any noise and oily smell that permanently emanated from that corner. His twin tables were cluttered with gray and silver parts. To the right of the tables was a disassembled reconnaissance drone, a newly designed feature supposedly implanted by him to install self-guided long range torpedoes to eliminate distant ships like Covenant light cruisers without fear of risk. On the center of one table was a hovering model of the _Ballista_ herself, with holograms of her charging with force into an asteroid field.

"What's up?"

"Tongju just picked up a distress call from Uniform Alpha. I just want to make sure it was okay with you if we have a look-see."

He shrugged, "Well Chase's been missing for a couple of days now. Jennifer just told me that she knows who, a group of friends she doesn't particularly care for. I think she's making it sound worse than it seems. It will take us a while, at least before we reach Seattle. I know slipspace to Criterion is about two hours and it'll be even more back to connecting ports and then London to Seattle route with that British air travel company so losing an hour at a floating ghost town won't matter much."

"Are you sure?" Aegis' voice had worry in it.

"Trip, I'll be fine. This isn't the first time me and my family have been at an adversarial situation like this."

"Okay." He switched over to Danny Tyler, who was manning the helm, "Helm, plot us a direct course to the call. Get Maverick to set up a UAV and send it on ahead."

"Done and done."

* * *

**This chapter seems to be a bit shorter in length than normal.**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing. You give my writing purpose.**


	8. Sub-Aqua II

**UNSC **_**Ballista**_** approaching distress call**

**Moon Uniform Alpha**

**October 1, 2558**

Everyone was completely still as they watched the image of a floating resort come into view on the drone's feed. The UAV was about the size of a large model plane and this particular unit served only for observation, having been removed its weapon capabilities of a light machine gun for strafing in favor of quieter engines, enough to strain hearing for it to be audible.

The white colored structure was spread out in a Y formation, starting out farther as low decks to where the ocean water was to be enjoyed by the happy resort patrons. Further towards the center, the towers rose up to restaurants and hotels lining the deck's sides. Up towards the top were spires and structures that were dead now, but would play a night light show that dazzled onlookers craning their necks skyward.

She looked like a phantom sliding through the water at a distance, almost threatening to fade away from sight if the drone ever wandered closer.

The drone had automatically run a thermal imaging scan and the entire structure remained cold despite this part of the moon being nearly eighty degrees Fahrenheit, a high humidity rate and the drone's sensor powerful enough to detect the body heat off of a mouse.

Maverick eased the drone until it did a slow pass directly over one of the spokes. The crew on the bridge of the _Ballista_ all drew sharp breaths when they began to contemplate what they were seeing. The room had gotten eerily quiet until Aegis buzzed his comlink for Sofia. The urgency of his tone was the same thing everyone was thinking out.

"Those can't be…"

"They are." Drew assured him, "The deck is covered with bodies."

"There are hundreds of them!" Leah whispered, "All not moving."

True to her word, countless corpses lined the deck's sidelines, all in agonizing shapes at the time of their deaths. Blood pooled around each body, joining others in a combined puddle that seemed to spread around the pure white deck like some contagious plague.

The door opened up and Sofia Inselton rushed inside, wearing only a loose tank top and pajama pants. A medical bag was held in her hands that she took for emergencies.

"What's wrong?" She asked, panting from having to sprint from her cabin up. Nobody had to really tell her as she visibly whitened upon looking at the gruesome display. The medic brushed a stray of silver blonde hair out of her face before she tore her eyes away.

"It doesn't look like trauma, rather some fast-acting hemorrhagic virus."

"Is it natural?" Aegis asked, all of his thoughts of salvage money had been repulsed from his mind.

"There is nothing natural that swiftly strikes this fast." She fiddled with her medical case, "I need to get over there and take some samples."

"No." Aegis countered, "I'm not letting any virus anywhere onboard." Sofia made to argue but he cut her off, "We'll do a decon tether on the Hornet and set up a bleach quarantine zone. Danny, I want you to take over flying the UAV. Maverick, finish all flight preparations for the Hornet. We're gonna have to make two trips."

"Vaal, get the elites to set up the bleach spray in hangar three and stand by in the phantom." He turned back to Sofia as the others rushed to their ordered tasks. "You need a hand?"

"I'll get Vasili to help me."

"Also prep a couple of bio-hazard suits in case we find survivors. Sofia, you, Vasili and I will be going in MJOLNIR armor."

It took twenty minutes, just five over Aegis' deadline before it reached the desolate resort. As they headed towards the hangar, Vaal was directing a group of elites in preparation of the bleach hose, fed from a tank stored belowdecks. Since Maverick would have to return, the Hornet would have to be thoroughly scrubbed down before returning. The pilot was dressed in a hazmat suit himself. Aegis wasn't taking any chances. Whatever had wiped out the people here wasn't hesitant to move on to the _Ballista_'s own crew. Sofia moved to him, inspecting his armor seals and leaving no chance to break.

"Move slowly and deliberately." She informed everyone. Easier said than done for the Spartans, MJOLNIR armor could make a simple task like that more challenging, but Aegis had wanted all those capable of wearing the armor to don it due to a potential threat aboard as well.

"Be sure you plan things before you do it. These suits are all that's protecting you from a possible infection. Even a tiny tear on the black suit or hazmat could leave you exposed."

Luke Riley spoke up in a quavering voice, "What will happen if we do?" Trip had ordered him along too for his expertise on potential weapons aboard.

"If you manage to quickly seal it up, the positive pressure inside the suit should keep you safe. I'll keep extra lengths of tape on you guys so the process won't be so much of a hassle. Don't move any more until I fully examine what had cut it."

She worked on Vasili next, double covering the joint armor. These additions made them stiffer and it was hard to grip the M6G pistols, but Aegis was not taking any chances of going over unarmed. He, Luke and Aegis all had a sling belt encircling their waists to hold their weapons.

He gave one of the sangheili on the deck team to go ahead and open the hangar doors. Vaal and the crew had finished isolating the hangar bay with Rak and another sangheili named Xiri prepared the disinfectant spray. As the sangheili ran to the controls, he saw Vaal sprint right after him. Curious, he stopped just before the hornet VTOL, allowing Sofia to step aboard with a large case of her equipment.

Vaal held out the domed helmet for the Ranger harness that the elites were wearing. The armor doubled as a biohazard suit when necessary. The sangheili nodded his thanks and shifted the gear forward, allowing the door to slide open.

Maverick toggled the jet thrusters on either side of the hornet once Aegis stepped aboard to the starboard platform. Satisfied that the controls were to his liking, he eased the small aircraft out.

The_ Ballista_ reached the sides of the deserted resort so it was only about a ninety second flight all the way down. Her length was a bit longer than the floating palace below, with decks that slowly climbed upwards until it peaked at the top spires where the radar was mounted. On her sides there were beautiful lines of gold and royal blue, a very majestic combination of colors.

Danny Tyler marked on Maverick's HUD at the bow of the closest spoke, as there it was the most open space free of the dead. He maneuvered some smooth odd movements, most likely combating some wind and lowered the hornet down a mere five feet above the deck. Aegis unsecured himself from the safety handles on the side and dropped down, bending his knees to absorb the incoming shock. He impacted the deck with a dull thud, waving at the pilot. He had carried Sofia's other medical case and set that down before reaching out to catch Sofia when she jumped.

As soon as she had descended Maverick lifted away until they only saw two dull blue lights from the hornet's engines as he moved back to the hangar. Aegis instinctively knelt down on one knee, his eyes carefully observing each spot for threats and pistol in hand. When he was satisfied nobody was here to ambush them, he holstered the gun.

"Let's go." Sofia stood, "I want to go to the med bay right away."

Aegis shook his head, "We're going to wait until Maverick comes back with Vasili and Luke. I want him with you at all times."

Sofia had to agree with his logic. It wasn't that he was being protective just because she was a woman; she was the only certified doctor for thousands of miles. It would be up to her to find a cure if necessary.

This couldn't be a coincidence; it was purely mass murder of innocents on an unimaginable scale. His mind was wandering ahead. He wasn't just sympathizing with all of the victims, he was already thinking ahead to those responsible.

It certainly wasn't Covenant. They had no known biological weapons, unless one counted a methane outbreak in the pens used to house unggoy. That left insurrectionists and other malicious humans.

The hornet returned in fifteen minutes, hovering at the same spot where they had been dropped off. Bleach dripped from the undercarriage. Trip and Sofia had moved aside to give Maverick some room to work as Vasili and Luke Riley disembarked. Once they gave Maverick a wave, he took off again back to the hangar where the sangheili decontamination team would thoroughly hose and scrub it down and left on standby in case trouble arose.

Aegis met everyone in the center once Maverick peeled away, "Okay everyone. Vasili, Sofia wants to head down to the sick bay, stick with her and help. Luke, I want you to head to the main room to where the manager and captain's office to download any logs that the resort might have."

"What about you?" Vasili asked.

"I'm going to search as much of the ship as possible."

Trip led Luke the way down the closest set of stairs where the hallway lights had dimmed enough for them to remove their flashlights and activate their VISRs on the MJOLNIR armor. Vasili and Sofia separated as well, knowing that the medical bay would also be close by, but in a different direction.

"How are you feeling Luke?" Aegis asked over the radio.

"I'm a little freaked out." He stared down the dark corridor, "This is one of those times I really regret watch movies and playing all of those shooter games involving laboratory accidents creating hordes of zombies.

"Honestly, I'm expecting one to lunge right at me." As Trip said that, he kept a grip on the holstered pistol. "Need me to stay with you?"

"I'll be okay." They had finally reached the bridge. Luke's tone indicated that he wanted to accept the offer of the commander, but his rival, Danny Tyler was among those listening back at the _Ballista_. Pride was getting the best of him.

He now sat down at one of the controls of a large room just below decks. There were plenty of consoles and monitors observing the general condition of the ship. Camera screens were overlooking corridors, decks and much of the interior, but still stayed out of the other twin spokes of the resort. Aegis suspected that there were two other control rooms just like this one and an even larger one that oversaw every essential function like a central nerve system.

"Got anything?" Aegis asked.

"This is called the Sub-Aqua resort and she was en route to the Faryo islands southwest of here to catch the spaceport flight to Rio Grande on Sigma Octanus IV."

"Hmm. Check her other logs as well."

"I'm on it."

* * *

**Hopefully the salvage price was good initially!**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose.**


	9. Sub-Aqua III

**Uniform Alpha**

**October 1, 2558**

As Sofia and Vasili worked, Luke Riley had found the auxiliary power controls and toggled them on.

The lights blinked a couple of times before finally revealing what darkness had hidden. It took two seconds for Sofia to find the first body. Vasili began the recording on his VISR to be relayed back to the Ballista.

The corpse had the bloodstained uniform of a ship officer and his own body fluids had pooled around his face when she turned him over.

Three other corpses were in the same control room, two men and a woman. She assumed that they were guests of the ship officer showing them around before they were struck with whatever virus.

"Well?"

"It could have just been a gas attack, but there were victims on the outside decks as well. Maybe it's a hemorrhagic fever, but it's way more powerful that what I've seen."

"Look at that." Vasili pointed over to the woman and rushed to her side. Sofia collected another sample vial and came along.

"Her blood is all black." She observed the obvious, "That means it might have went into his gastrointestinal tract and judging by the droplets dried up on the wall nearby, I'm guessing she had coughed it all up."

She picked up the woman's arm. Instead of a simple bend like a normal human joint would, it curved unnaturally, almost to where it was rubber, resembling a tentacle of a squid. "Her bones have been leeched of calcium to the point to where it would be like paper. If I wanted to, I could probably cave in her ribcage."

"You know what we're dealing with?"

Sofia stood up, "Not really, but one thing's for sure. It's engineered."

"You positive?"

She nodded, "This virus attacks too swiftly for it to be a natural plague. Viruses, like bacteria and other infectious pathogens have an urge to reproduce themselves the maximum number of times. Since they need to infect living cells to perform this, it would die as quickly as it would appear. Eradication would occur before it could really spread from one person to the next. Even a lethal virus like Ebola needs time to kill the victim, which is plenty needed to move on. Yet most Ebola strains today are nonexistent." She accepted the disinfectant cloth Vasili handed her to clean off her arms, "Natural selection would have killed this one off long ago. So somebody made this virus and put it on the resort."

* * *

Although it wasn't as elaborate and opulent as some other resorts, Aegis had to admit, but the Sub-Aqua still had a unique extravagant flair that he had seen only to a few vacation places. She sported her fair share of polished brass lined with the royal blue and gold for the Sub-Aqua resort corporation that run the vessel. The grade of food and furniture didn't come cheap at all and judging by the guest's clothing, they also had plenty in their bank accounts as well.

What set her apart from most cruise ships was her crystal clear underside spokes. These would be covered by plates to make the vessel hydrodynamic when she was needed to go from one place to another. When she was by a colorful coral reef, the lower decks would open up and the plates would retract to an unbelievable aquarium style view of some of the most exotic creatures ever seen.

Now that the resort was far from any shoreline, all that the panels displayed were the inky blackness of the sea. He flinched as he saw a glimmer of movement behind the glass panel and casually observed a school of fish resembling tunas swim underneath, pausing to look curiously at the odd object in their home.

He was jumpier than expected and took deep breaths. There were bodies all around the atrium, in twisted shapes of agony. Some lay on the staircase that spiraled downwards as if waiting for death's final embrace while others simply died where they stood. This looked to open towards a dining hall, where a banquet was taking place. Five tuxedoed musicians had destroyed their orchestral instruments as they fell. A woman as a waitress had set her glass of flat champagne down on her table before falling. A man had just helped himself to the now cold food and tipped the buffet table down when he had collapsed. Trip's heart sank in despair and rose in anger at seeing something as horrifying as a husband and wife curled up to shield their little child. Countless stories could be told from all of the dead.

Sure, the MJOLNIR armor could shield him from the virus that was potentially airborne, but nothing had shielded him from the pure horror this atrocity had done secretly.

A maintenance door was locked and then brought down by a powerful kick aided by the armor. Instantly, the atmosphere changed to its industrial state and backstage seen only by employees.

"Status?" He more wanted to hear from somebody rather than an update on the progress.

"Vasili and I are en route to the ship's medical bay."

"Good to hear. Riley?"

"Download's thirty percent on recent logs at least two and a half months back."

"_Ballista_, how are things on your end?"

"We're good Commander." Tongju replied back in the bridge, "Nobody's on the scopes, leaving us all alone out here."

Aegis opened the door to a massive filtering device, a large box with sophisticated linings and mechanisms here strained the salt from the seawater to provide the Sub-Aqua resort with the demanding resource for toilets, sinks and other utilities. "As soon as you see anything, let us know."

"Roger that."

"Luke, I'm headed off to the engine and maintenance areas. Come and look for me if I don't respond for a half hour."

"Wilco."

He had found a box of tools and spent ten minutes examining the filter. Judging from the seal placed on the primary tank for the cleansed water, it was safe to say that the virus' introduction was not through the water. However, he still couldn't discount the idea, as it was among the most common for breeding diseases. The seal's log had the date written in late August when it was issued by the maintenance worker.

Moving on, Aegis now emerged into what seemed like a major processing center for the engines. A sign into the doorway read "Engine Coolant Authorized Personnel Only"

Two cylinders lying on their sides dominated the area in its long lateral shape. He had examined every bit possible, only growing slightly more irritated the further he looked. There was no evidence of tampering or recent maintenance with any part of the coolant. It funneled a gas into not just the engines, but also partially went to the air conditioning cells as well. Having cold infected air blown in everyone's face was just as effective at drinking contaminated water. Nothing was even evident of malicious intent, not even a single vial of any type of toxin. All he got were dead men and women with blood that was colored black.

Trip found himself suddenly thrown backwards as the explosion emanated without warning. It rumbled somewhere deeper in the resort. Immediately after one blast rocked the Sub-Aqua, a second and third charges detonated. He was standing perfectly upright one second and then the next had him halfway across the room. Crates shook free of their resting to their side and tumbled towards him. Aegis put his feet down, deftly dodging the falling obstacles.

A new coming sound alerted him as he looked straight up to see a massive wall of white foamy water surge through the doorway he had just entered towards him. The floor slanted downwards behind him and he had just activated his nano-palm gloves to adhere to the floor.

That was a bad move on his part. Just as he had halted his descent, he saw a storage crate that had yet to be dislodged now tumbling straight for him as if it had a mind destined to keep him from escaping the doomed floating city.

No time for even Spartan reflexes, the obstacle slammed into him with the force of a spade flatbed. Trip's head jerked back and hit the rear of his helmet hard enough for black dots to explode and twinkle in his eyes.

* * *

**Uh oh! The place is going to come down!**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose.**


	10. Sub-Aqua IV

**Uniform Alpha**

**October 1, 2558**

Ten minutes earlier, Vasili and Sofia moved down yet another hallway towards a massive atrium that extended fifty feet in height. All surrounding the place were vacant hotel rooms and their dead residents inside or elsewhere. It was impossible to see inside any of the elevators due to their glass panels being smeared with the inky black blood.

"For one that isn't an egghead in bioscience," Sofia began, using the frequent term Spartans and military personnel referred to scientists as, "You're holding up remarkably."

"I've seen how the interrogators I've worked with in Victoria leave their prisoners after they squeeze out whatever intel they believed their captives had," Vasili replied in an emotionless state, "After that, nothing really bothers me."

Every member of the Blades knew about Vasili's deep-sleeper type operations inside the reclusive and oppressive colony of Victoria, which had gone dark during the Covenant wars. Aegis once admitted following an mission to halt a plot to flood the gold market when Suvorov had gone undercover as a slave refuge that the commander himself would likely never had made it out. At least out mentally intact. Vasili had seen some of the worst things concerning human rights that was imaginable.

As they suspected, there were an increase of bodies as they neared the lobby, a circular room that preceded the medical wing. Men and women flocking to the one place where they would hopefully obtain a fighting chance against the invisible assassin.

Vasili probed the medicine cabinets while she took samples here and there, filling out two empty vials with the black blood before sealing them again in her sample case.

Vasili's flashlight revealed an elderly man in doctor's whites. This had to be the doctor. The black blood trail had trailed off from another room that was marked as Room 1C. He noted a certificate mounted on the wall behind the nearby C shaped reception desk of Doctor Percy Vanders, earning his medical degree from the University of Toronto from Earth's URNA Ontario province.

"What the?" He backed up against the wall, slitting a hand across his throat. Immediately, Sofia froze as well. Sensing a threat, the Spartan-IV took out his pistol and didn't hesitate to sweep the corner.

A movement caught his eye and he raised his arm instinctively in defense. The curtain rod that held the heap of red fabric was torn down and struck his left arm. Shields flared as he didn't give his attacker any time to counterattack. He grabbed something soft that he assumed was the neck of the assassin and put them against the adjacent wall. A piercing scream emitted from the person who sounded like a female and before she could do anything else, Vasili had the muzzle of the pistol put on the side of her forehead. He turned on his flashlight on the side of his Air Assault helmet.

"We have a survivor!" He said over to Sofia, releasing his grip and holstering the pistol.

The woman backed up as far against the wall as possible when she saw two people in space suits standing before her, one of them having put a gun to the head. She wore a simple white tank top over some very short shorts and an oxygen mask covered the lower parts of her face, the tube trailing off to the side of the bed, most likely where she had been sleeping when there were intruders.

"Vasili!" She scolded, kneeling down next to her, "It's okay. We're here to help."

"Please! Don't hurt me! I don't want to die!" She pleaded, tears beginning to drop from her blue eyes.

"My name is Sofia." She assured in a calm demeanor, "This is Vasili, we're going to get you out of here."

When she didn't continue, Sofia had suspected that shock had taken over. "Get out the spare hazmat suit. I'm not taking her off the mask until she's inside."

"That might be why she had survived since the pathogen is airborne and this supplemental unit is a separate from the rest." Vasili said as he tore open the plastic wrap surrounding the spare.

"What is your name?" Inselton asked.

"Haley. Haley Liston."

"I see. Well Haley, my name is Sofia."

"You are military?"

Suddenly a big deep booming sound filled the room, sending the entire place vibrating at an alarming rate. Sofia looked up, "What was that?"

Vasili opened his mouth to say an explosion when a second echoed through the resort. It sounded like a deep rumble that echoed off the walls. Haley screamed again when suddenly the floor shook as if at the epicenter of an earthquake. The sudden tilt of the entire floating city flung Vasili to the floor, forcing Sofia to use her own body to shield Haley.

"We have to go now!" Vasili shouted. Even as he picked himself up, it was already knowledge that whoever had poisoned the inhabitants of the Sub-Aqua resort was now using explosives to scuttle it and hide the evidence.

"What's happening?" She whimpered.

"I don't know." Sofia answered, "My friend is going to see what it is." She held out the hazmat suit, "I need you to put this on."

"Am I sick?"

"I don't know." The suit was more for the protection of the _Ballista_ than herself. There was no way Haley was certain uninfected until tests had been ran, but Sofia kept that to herself.

"I saw what happened to Isabelle and the doctor dead. I thought they may have breathed in something so I stayed on the separate unit."

Sofia was surprised by the option, "Really? That was a smart move. I think you had saved your life by doing that. You're a very brave and resourceful girl."

Saying that to her seemed to give her a confidence boost, knowing that she had done something right and more hope to get out alive.

Vasili came back in the room, with both a grim expression and voice, "The explosion just blocked off our lower exit, we can't go back the way we came."

"Is there another way out?"

"Better hope so. I can already hear water flooding inside."

* * *

Drew shot up from the command chair as soon as orange clouds of fire enveloped the Sub-Aqua resort.

"Oh no!" Tongju cried out, "Guys! There's been an explosion on the ship!"

Geysers of white water followed the explosions as if the floating city had been hit by underwater torpedoes. He knew that was impossible, their sonar would have detected the launches and the sensors showed no other vessels within hundreds of miles. Depending on how large the bombs had blown holes inside, she would be underwater in less than fifteen minutes.

"Maverick, stand by with the Hornet! Scuttling charges just went off and we got people in harm's way."

"Hover on standby?" The sound of the engine pitch was rising, meaning that he had already started his preparations.

"Yes, wait for my instructions." He keyed to another channel, "_Ballista_ to Aegis….Sofia? Vasili?"

"Drew is that you?" It was Luke Riley, who still was in the primary server area, "What happened? It sounded like explosions."

"It was detonations all right! Someone's trying to sink the city and hide their crime."

"But I haven't even gotten twenty percent on the downloading." He protested, having stayed at the server room the whole time over.

"I suggest you hightail it out." Drew said, "What about Trip and the others?"

"Sofia and Vasili went off the scopes a couple minutes ago."

"Okay." Drew replied, "What about Aegis?"

"He left about ten minutes before his signal was at the engine room."

"Fuck." He cursed, that was probably the worst place to be in a sinking ship.

"Well I'll tell you what," Luke continued over in the server room where he yanked out his drive from a port. "These comlinks are getting upgrades as soon as we return."

"We shall worry about that when the time comes." Ironically, that was something that was nagged at the back of his mind as well. "Maverick is inbound and coming in hot. Haul ass and get out of there."

"Yes sir." With one guaranteed safe, he had to trust the others that they would make their own method out. Sofia and Vasili had a sure chance, but Aegis would likely have to do something crazy.

"Tongju, get ahold of Aegis and tell him the obvious of getting the hell out of there!"

"I'm on it." He turned back, switching channels, "Tongju to Commander. Hello? Aegis do you read?"

But Trip never answered.

* * *

**It's too deep inside the ship for the Commander to answer! How will he get out? Or will he be able to?**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose.**


	11. Sub-Aqua V

**Uniform Alpha**

**October 1, 2558**

The rising tide began to pour deeper into the ship's unoccupied confines and Aegis would have drowned if it weren't for his MJOLNIR armor's own air supply.

His muscles felt like they had been tied with weights via ropes as the water continued to splash over the armor. Fortunately, this was nothing for the pressure levels it could handle. He groped blindly with his left hand, finding the edge of the crate that had smashed him downwards and pulled him upright.

For a second he thought he was home free, but then he found his own freedom of movement halted. Looking down, he saw that the armor's right leg had been caught between two fallen containers who were pushing on the armor to grind against one another.

Working as fast as he could while maintaining awareness of the growing waterline, Aegis' left hand found the seals just below the knee of the trapped armor, if he could free his armored section, then it may have been enough for him to escape. His fingers slipped into the safeties and it forced him to stretch over yet another fallen crate in his lap. He heard an audible clicking noise and felt the armor parts loosen in the calf section.

Timing it right, he pushed on the crate in front of him, which in turn had moved the one pinning his leg aside. He quickly thrust the newly freed leg clear and released his grip, muscles burning from the effort. As he moved away, he felt the other crate slam against the black suit, once again preventing his escape.

This was the harder part. There were three things that Aegis always carried with him. One of them was a foldable knife. This wasn't the combat grade ones that would look like a machete size in a normal human's hands, this razor was compact and one tool he had learned over years of toughened experience to never be without. While it was primarily a survival tool, it did double as a weapon, although he only used it when there was no other option.

The edge was just as sharp as any surgical scalpel and it sliced through the protective black suit with ease. The water had passed where he was cutting and air bubbles popped out, temporarily preventing water from gushing in. Inevitably, it began to fill the cavity. Trip shivered at the water's lukewarm temperature before continuing. The best he could do was lie in almost a fetal position and hang his life dependably on a little razor. He worked faster, now aware that his time was limited. The water forced him into an awkward position as he tried to keep his face out.

Aegis knew he had only one more chance to free himself. The suit was tearing, but stubbornly remained attached to the rest of his body. He took a deep breath and fit the blade at the thickest part of the suit. The water now rose above his forehead and his lungs began protesting for air. Aegis was a strong swimmer, yet yanking himself free was not fruitful at all. His helmet wouldn't drain strangely when he moved upright.

He was going to have to risk it, his own lungs convulsed, having bubbles escape from his lips and a painful chest reminder that his brain was deprived of oxygen. With savageness and the instinct for survival, he put the knife away and pulled ferociously at the trapped part of the suit. The first try ripped a part of it, but the remainder was firmly stuck.

Aegis moved upwards, allowing a tiny amount of air into his body, just enough to push back the dark tides that were on the edges of his vision. With every ounce of his strength, he pulled again.

Without warning, he suddenly tumbled back, unclear if he had completely cut the stuck portion off or it had torn on its own. Landing flat on his back, he quickly got up, easing his way out of the tide while working on some tape from the shoulder armor to cover up the exposed parts. Once all the water had been drained in his suit, he wound at least two layers before his HUD gave him the satisfaction of a positive air pressure.

There was a watertight door nearby the coolant units and his heart soared once he had found his way out. Only there was no mechanism to operate it at least from the outside.

As he ran down the lower areas of the deck, he forced himself to breathe normally, despite the encircling arms of fear creeping into his body. At the rate the Sub-Aqua resort was sinking, his hours had just turned into minutes. Seawater suddenly burst into a door just ahead and rushed downwards in his direction as if the ocean was eager to claim its newest victim. The nano-palms on his hand were destroyed so he pushed himself upright using the armor's weight to hopefully anchor him down.

Another object tumbled towards him and he reached out to catch it, not wanting a repeat of what had happened last time.

A dive tank. Used by those who wanted to scuba dive when the resort was in shallower waters to explore the moon's watery reefs below the waves. He still had his handgun.

Two minutes and three more scuba air tanks later, he was running back to the engine room. It was going to be one hell of a ride.

* * *

Sofia helped Haley as she slid her slender legs inside the bright yellow hazmat suit and pulled it over her shoulders. Vasili told her to hold her breath so that she could fit the helmet over her shoulders. While she put as much of the pure oxygen in her lungs, Vasili quickly slid the helmet over and tucked what hair strayed out inside. He then took off her mask and finished sealing the seams at the chest and neck area.

"The way upstairs is blocked by debris from the detonation." He explained, "Haley is there a separate way that we can access the main deck from here?"

"No." She tried her best not to look at the doctor's corpse at the lobby of the medical bay, "But I know to the right over there." She said pointing, "Is a door that only maintenance crew use for storage."

"Excellent." He gave a reassuring smile, "Must be an auxiliary route."

Sofia took Haley's hand and led her following Suvorov. It amazed her that their survivor must have been in shock, witnessing an unimaginable horror, but much to her credit, Liston stayed with them the whole way.

Vasili toggled with the door handle then brought it down easily with a well placed kick when it didn't open. He peered down where a small ledge had a ladder open to an enormous warehouse like design.

"Do you recognize where we are?" He asked as Sofia helped Haley down the ladder.

"No. Much of the ship is off limits to anyone except maintenance and officers."

"I understand." He reassured her. Her frustration was evident that she wasn't being helpful.

Suddenly another blast rocked the city and caused all three to look behind them.

"Shit." The curse was barely out of his mouth when a wall of frothy seawater slammed into them, sending the trio tumbling downwards as the place suddenly slanted, sinking bow first.

Vasili was first to react and slammed his active nano-palms onto the floor. He suddenly whipped back as it bone-jarring halted his descent immediately. As they fell down, Sofia caught Haley, who had just been above her and kept her steady, her arm found Vasili's ankle and she lay on top of the girl with only the foot of her fellow Spartan keeping them from falling into the pitch black chasm below.

"Everyone okay?" He asked as the water flow moved away from the floor and poured in like the Angel Falls.

"We're good." Sofia responded, activating the sticky palms installed in her own armor.

"I see another door to our left. I'm going to head that way."

"Take Haley with you."

He detached a palm and grabbed Haley's arm, lifting her up until she could cling to his back. Her arms circled his neck and the bottom of his helmet prevented her from choking him accidentally. He moved slowly, making sure that his passenger's grip didn't loosen. When he finally reached the doorside, he lifted his hand up and pulled it open, half-throwing Haley inside. She landed hard on the other end of the threshold, but she made it.

Vasili made it inside himself and they waited for Sofia before moving on. They were now back inside the main areas of the ship with a large area to his left and a bay of some sort where I-beams kept storage for something. He shined his light on a label at the desk in front. "Aha!" It read: Jet Ski rental.

"What did you find?" Sofia asked.

"This is our ticket out." He shined past, revealing a crystallizing gleam of white and blue jetskis. Moving past the vehicles, he found a chain that allowed it to be winched up to the main deck where passengers could rent the fast boats with hourly rates. Giving the chain a quick test, he tapped the steel area at the end. It made a dull thud instead of echoing. "Perfect."

"This part is already underwater." He explained, fishing out a small white block and putting it against the mechanism that welded the doors shut, "When this charge blows, the room is going to flood."

"We'll be able to get out right?" Haley asked.

"Absolutely. We'll be able to swim once it has completely filled."

"Hold on." Sofia said, knowing his plan. She shut the door that they had just come through to prevent water from continuously coming in. Behind Haley, she braced the girl to keep them together.

Vasili wedged the tiny explosive inside the chain and triggered it. It let out nothing more than a loud pop and the door backed up, causing water to gush inside and swirl around their heels.

A loud groaning came from the door as the mechanism suddenly went still. Vasili pushed through the surge and tried to lift even more, but the pressure was too great. His warning shout to Sofia and Haley was lost just as the door was ripped free of its hinges and tossed ruthlessly aside. It stuck Vasili and set him tumbling backwards, his shields completely out and sparking as they furiously attempted to recharge. Had it not been for Inselton's presence, Haley would have fainted from shock and lost in the tidal rush.

It was only when the water had finally settled from the rush before Vasili finally moved over. The armor amazingly stayed afloat despite its half-ton weight.

He saw Haley's suit inflated and herself doing a handstand on a railing that she used to cling to. He swam fluidly over and helped deflate her suit. He touched her arm, edging her to let go and moved to Sofia to do the same. However, as soon as he reached her, he felt resistance. Sofia swung around, pressing the visor of her MJOLNIR Operator helmet to his.

"The sample case is gone!" She almost had to shout over the water's roar, "We need to find it!"

It would take hours to find it and by then, the wreck would be six hundred feet below the surface.

"We don't have time!"

"But we need those tissue samples!" Her tone was desperate.

All he could do was take her hand and tow her towards the opening, where rescue would await.

* * *

**Sofia and Vasili are on their way out, but she had lost the sample case! And what about Aegis? What does he have in mind?**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone. You give my writing purpose.**


	12. The Culprit I

**Uniform Alpha**

**October 1, 2558**

The sangheili were waiting when Maverick brought the hornet back inside the hangar bay. Vaal waved at the elite manning the controls for the bleach to turn it on.

When Sofia and Vasili had towed Haley outside, the Sub-Aqua resort was on her death throes. The carbon hull groaned as it began to cave inward. As soon as they were free of the sinking wreck, Vasili inflated his vest, shooting straight for the surface.

They emerged slightly ahead of the ship's bow where they saw the _Ballista_ and her hornet accomplice crisscrossing the sea with powerful beams of bluish light. One of the lights just swept past them and then returned, bathing the trio in a blinding glow. Both Haley and Sofia waved with their hands, prompting the operator to blink the light in acknowledgement.

Seconds later, the hornet circled them as Maverick observed if they were alright. Satisfied, he radioed back before peeling off to spare them the hurricane force of the engine down-wash. They were going to be extracted via SPIE rig.

Vasili and Sofia made sure once they were inside the bay to do a thorough job of scrubbing Haley's suit down before turning to each other. They had to make certain that no square centimeter remained unchecked, as all it took was a single virus to start another outbreak. Four inches of bleach was sloshing on the deck running down the drain.

Sofia let out a satisfied breath of air as she pulled her helmet free once she was satisfied no infection still remained on the suits. "That feels amazing!"

"Amen." Vasili tore off his own, leaving it in a biohazard container one of the sangheili wheeled up, "I need a shower."

Sofia guided Haley; still suited towards the ship's own medical bay where tests would be conducted to determine if she was infected or not. Only when she was satisfied again, then Haley would be allowed to interact with the _Ballista_ and her crew.

Vasili was stopped by Drew just as he reached the elevator floor to his room. Normally he would have snapped at someone interrupting him after such a harsh ordeal, but the concerned look on Drew's face told him everything.

"Luke successfully managed to escape. We lost contact with the commander."

"Damn." Vasili went back to the elevators, "I'm going back for him."

"It's too late!" Drew pleaded, "We can't do anything! Don't you think I know that?"

Across the sea, the Sub-Aqua resort was in her last moments afloat. The air trapped inside began to vent explosively, sending windows still above the surface shattering, followed by the water's embrace seeping in to the openings.

The bridge was silent, with only the humming of the controls being any noise that added to an eerie mood. They all looked back at the wreckage of the resort, where Aegis' final resting place remained.

Suddenly, he saw an explosion of water erupt from the port side of the city. Compressed air shot out like a bullet in a gun and it spat out a green and white object out into the sea with tremendous force.

"What the hell?" He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

The green and white was Aegis' MJOLNIR armor and he looked like he went for cannonball in a circus. He must have been stunned by the blast because he had impacted a piece of debris nearby and the impact bounced him up, with his shields flaring in response.

"Maverick, get Vaal down there and retrieve the commander!"

"What?" Both human and sangheili responded simultaneously over the controls, just as equally surprised. "I mean, we're on it."

Once Vaal had climbed aboard in his ranger harness, Maverick eased out to where the spotlight had shone in Trip's unmoving form. Now, the ship was ablaze with lights, probably enough to be seen from her real realm; space.

Vaal leapt off the side and activated the jet pack attached to the back of his armor. He toggled the thrust until he landed on the debris right above Aegis, who still lay prone. He unhooked a string of cable, hooking the end into his back, just above the jetpack. After securing himself, he did the same for the Spartan. He got back on the hornet and they moved off towards the _Ballista_ for the final time that day.

"So what exactly happened to him?" Vasili asked once Vaal had finally stepped out of the decon chamber once he had been scrubbed in his armor.

"You're not going to believe his story." Vaal shook his head in disbelief of his own, "As soon as he awoke, he stood up across from me and took a bow."

* * *

Down on the oceanic surface, the entire Blades crew had missed out one little thing.

The craft was only fifty feet long with a width of maybe thirty two feet, where its wings would then extend to a span that doubled it. It sat a good half mile from the wreck nearly invisible to the ship surveying it.

Its sole occupant was curious to see an old UNSC warship take such interest in the Sub-Aqua resort. He relaxed after seeing the registration that it was only a civilian craft. After all, they would only find the evidence. It couldn't be allowed to happen. That is, if they didn't step aboard.

The charges were deployed by the craft as underwater scuttling drones, attaching to the bottom of the city's hull. All that was awaited was the signal to detonate which was done hastily afterwards.

As the orange fire raged across the sky from the wreck, he pulled up a comlink and made a call, making sure it was undetectable and untraceable.

"It's done." He finished before hanging up. The hatch to the craft was sealed and it slowly descended into the depths as if it had never existed in the first place.

* * *

**A short chapter but still exciting nonetheless I hope! Everyone's safely aboard!**

**It's not been a good week for me, work is wearing me down plus my younger sibling is nursing pneumonia.**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose.**


	13. The Culprit II

**UNSC _Ballista_**

**October 1, 2558**

Sofia Inselton was so concentrated on her work that she never heard Luke and Danny rush into her lab. Her attention had been on the power of her advanced microscope, studying a slide of tissue underneath and it wasn't until Danny gave a grunt of impatience. She finally tore her eyes away and regarded the two men with an annoyed face, but she moved her irritation aside when they broke into grins.

Over to their left was their patient lying in isolation, cut off from the rest of the ship by a sealed room, monitored by a dozen sensors. Next to her, Aegis was slumped against the side of the wall, still wearing his MJOLNIR armor. He would stay there until Sofia was certain that it wasn't a fatal exposure during his breach in the black undersuit. He had to be treated as though he was a carrier. Even the samples had to be protected and she only could view them through her sophisticated computer analyzing machines or wearing a hazmat suit.

"What?" Despite her attempt at calming herself from being interrupted, it still came out as a short-tempered snap.

"We ran diagnostics too." Riley said, "It's a zero percent chance the Commander and girl are infected."

Sofia was ignored just when she was about to ask how when Danny Tyler noticed the young woman fast asleep in the isolation ward, her brown hair swept to one side of the pillow. "Oh nice! What a hottie!"

"Ditch that Ty," Luke piped up, very quick to defend something, "I was on the rescue crew, so I'm the one who gets to ask her out first!"

"You do not!" Tyler protested, "Did you actually participate in her rescue?" He looked at his rival smugly, "I don't think so. You didn't even leave the server room so I have as much of a chance as you!"

"Boys." Sofia chided, "Please take off your testosterone coats and tell me why you are here."

"Oh my bad." Luke stole one last glance at Haley before continuing, "Danny and I ran the scenario and collected the results. We knew the commander's numbers about ten minutes ago, but the girl's just came back. Zero percent chance either of them is infected."

"How am I supposed to know for sure?" She finally asked.

"Have you found traces of the toxin in any samples taken?"

"No."

"You won't need to." Tyler continued as if the insult was nothing to him, "The only way to have the entire population aboard to be killed is by food poisoning." He held up a hand to stave off Sofia's next comment, "An airborne pathogen would be much more widely dispersed especially to those outside, which also didn't make it as well. Even when poisoning the water supply won't be a sound tactic, because everyone doesn't drink precisely at the same time unless it's in the morning, when showers and teeth brushing are most common."

He spoke enough that Sofia was assured that their young guest had absolutely nothing to fear from either one. Danny wasn't that bad looking, but he was such an awkward type of personality that it wasn't imaginable of him talking to her. Luke's punk attitude hid his computer whiz inside, so he wouldn't fare much better.

"It seemed that everyone had died at the same time," Luke added, "That can't be true as people with weaker immune systems would have succumbed quicker."

"So it was the food?" Sofia had yet to find a dent in their logic.

"It has to be." Tyler smiled, "I'm fairly sure Trip didn't eat anything while he was aboard the resort and I doubt she ate either."

"To be sure of ourselves, we ran the diagnostics during the Commander's exposure in the engine room, even if the air pressure was positive, the volume of water pouring in would have dispersed the toxicity levels thousand fold." He crossed his arms in irritation as well, "The commander and gorgeous are fine."

Sofia grunted, "Well unfortunately for you, Haley is going to stay in isolation until I deem it okay. What you told me isn't good enough, even though I think you're right about Trip." She had come to the same conclusion that he was okay, but even with the seemingly correct theory of the two brains until things were double and triple checked. It mattered not even if there was no virus found in a blood, saliva or urine sample. That still meant that the virus would be like a sleeper agent, waiting silently to strike out, overwhelming her immune systems and moving to the next victims, the _Ballista_ and her crew. She knew that sangheili held immunities to certain diseases that were fatal to humans, but she wasn't taking any chances even with them.

"It's a waste of time doc. I'm telling you." Danny persisted, leading her to suspect that it was more going on besides science.

"Danny, it's my time to waste and I don't care if you say so." She keyed the microphone to communicate inside the ward, "Commander,"

He jerked up from his slumped position against the wall, showing that he had fallen asleep. There was simply no time to sulk knowing you had a deadly infection trying to multiply inside you. "You're clear. Head out to the decon shower. You can leave the armor inside, we'll scrub it down later."

Trip took nearly a half hour to fully remove everything, from armor to clothing before he stood in the shower chamber, naked under the spray of antiviral agents. Sofia left a pair of shorts and a black T-shirt once he fully cycled through the air lock into the lab.

She gave a whistle and recoiled from the horrid scent reeking from his body, "You really need a shower."

"You spend that much time sweating in the suit without temperature adjusters and we'll talk." During the initial breach in his suit, it had caused the conditioning unit in his back to go offline. Any openings that tried to ventilate heat couldn't because that would allow even more water inside and drag him down. Thus he was forced to turn it off and endure the heat that turned the armor into a miniature oven.

"Ah." He said finally sitting down well away from the other three, "This is nothing a long shower and a bottle of scotch won't cure." He turned over to Luke and Danny, "What did you find?"

"You must have been out of contact after the explosion," The weapons tech said, "I managed to salvage some of it, but it is roughly twenty two percent of the server's data." Before Aegis could interrupt, he held up a hand to stall him, "I haven't gone through it since I got back. Just making sure you and gorgeous in there were okay."

"I saw you talking to our guest in there." Sofia said, "How is she?"

Aegis shook his head, "Terrified, tired. Clueless on what had happened to everyone and seeing her state, I didn't really want to push it." He turned to leave, "However, as soon as she wakes up and feels better, I want you three to get some answers. I'm going to call a board meeting at the afternoon and we're going to decide our next move."

He retreated after a brief word with Vaal before taking the path up to his cabin.

His own personal quarters were the largest on the ship and it resembled a cozy studio apartment one would find in Manhattan. He had vivid lighting that had a clear desk to his left, adorned with a laptop and a couple of other utilities found at a desk.

His bathroom and bedroom were at the right side, the former behind a wall decorated to be folded out into a holo-screen to watch the latest programs and movies right over his massive king sized bed. Next to the bed was a sofa, which he usually found himself having to sit down whenever he had time to think. His bathroom was a stylish warm tile walls with a large sink, Everclean mirror that would remove any watermarks or stains every two hours and a large copper tub that flanked his silver stainless steel shower stall.

An antique captain's safe aboard the UNSC _Titus Andronicus _the Phoenix-class colony ship that first colonized his homeworld, the Jovian moon of Europa was bought by him for nearly five thousand credits, well above its worth on the old market. It sat just beside his desk and bed.

Nearly every small arms aboard the ship were kept in the lockers in the same room as the soundproof firing range, but Aegis still kept an arsenal of his own inside the _Titus Andronicus_' safe.

In addition to the rifles and handguns inside the armory section, he kept stacks of currency, varying from the UNSC credit to several others established by independent colonies like Victoria, all worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. It was when he accessed his safe were all the relics of past adventures in his whole career stored. He kept separate an large bar of gold and a gold ring during an attempt by bankers collaborating with skirmisher warlords to flood the market. Nearby was an energy sword hilt with the unique crest of the Talam lineage given to him as thanks from the Talam's kaidon for cooling down the heavy tensions on the shared moon that they colonized with the UNSC.

His life felt just like clockwork, every day multiple new threats ranging from innie terrorist attacks to fanatical hate messages from a dozen different Covenant splinter groups had felt like the newer war being much different than the older one. The old war was simply falling back until nowhere was left to run. It could've been a fight for survival, as the Covenant Empire had seemingly infinite amounts of higher tier infantry and starships. This new war had been raging for half a decade and his belief that the UNSC still had no clue how to fight it. Yet, these risks were those that he put himself and his crew at every day, so that the UNSC didn't have to worry about the dirty work.

The report of the resort's attack and scuttling would be put out very soon and he would then call in his meeting to discuss the perpetrators and make them pay for what they had done.

A shower later, he fell asleep so soundly that he did not require his breathing machine to impair his own inhalation. Nor did he ever have any issues that normally plagued his sleep.

* * *

**Now to find out what had killed all of those people.**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose.**


	14. The Culprit III

**Tampa, URNA, Earth**

**October 1, 2558**

The appearance of the blue and silver security hornet VTOL over the white tent was plenty enough to scare away the paparazzi aircraft all hovering around like flies to honey. The pilots of the civilian aircraft were not going to risk arrest; no matter how much the press aboard had tried to bribe them. They were fortunate when the security pilot was unable to read the tail registration tags on them for violating the no-fly zone. Seeing no other threat in the sky, the hornet's pilot descended back to the landing pad, where another appearance by a press aircraft would prompt them to continue their guard dog duty.

Inside the massive white tent, the guests didn't give the engine noises outside a second thought as the standard volume of chatter increased. The five-man orchestra resumed playing their Britten piece, the more hungry guests went to crowd around the three tables laden with various appetizers and groups of women in skimpy bikinis went out again to crowd around the sapphire swimming pool, one and a half-times as large as any fitness version. They had an underground garage combining the luxury limousines and armored patrol cars to carry them to the nearby airfield where their private interstellar yacht could take them anywhere within the colonial bounds, staffed by professional chefs, stewards and a platoon sized compliment of battle-hardened security.

All of this was situated in the front yard expanding wondrous amounts of property. It was backed by a highly expensive Spanish style villa with thirty five thousand square feet of living space. The completion of the property acquisition took four years to finally build, previous owners of the land were sent off to the nearest bar to nurse their recent loss to a more powerful human being.

Desmond and Karin Odgers owned the decadent mansion as well as the guesthouse in a separate courtyard twice the size of any estate in their neighborhood. They were not actors or industry tycoons, although Karin had once headed a studio that produced some hit films. They were guardians of the leaders of the Hollow Societea movement, now heading the rapidly expanding belief. Donors all over the colony networks had contributed to construct the villa. The household was the Odger's place of residence simultaneously serving as the movement's headquarters in Tampa, Florida. Much more filled the wallet from the celebrity elite, which now began congregating in growing numbers.

Desmond was the son of the couple who had started the movement, Douglas and Carly Odgers. He met his wife Karin after she had read the beliefs and teachings and came to their temporary office in the greater Jacksonville metro area to offer her membership. They married and under his parent's dream had grown the Hollow Societea movement as it was today. Both of his parents had served in the Human-Covenant war and during Douglas' final hour in a fierce battle on a distant planet, he began to offer teachings to help several other Army troops find solace upon death. Their stronghold eventually fell to overwhelming Covenant troops, but they had eliminated the vast majority for the remaining UNSC forces to easily wipe out the remainder. His mother, Carly had supposedly vanished under unknown circumstances, well mourned by the followers of the movement, which had gone viral via magazine and video propaganda.

Desmond had a solid build of nearly six and a half feet tall. He was only forty seven years old, but his plastic surgery made him look nearly half that age and also gave him an attention drawing air. His hair was an auburn color, brown with a slight reddish tint. His voice had a deep booming voice, capable of lighting up any dour souls in the same room. His appearance was accented with the green dress jacket over black slacks that seemed to make himself look even taller.

Karin was only a couple of inches shorter than her husband, but was in no way any less powerful. She was the image of an ideal Florida Hollywood hype girl. Perfect dyed blonde hair with radiant blue eyes drew everyone to her and the side of her husband. The athletic trimmed figure enhanced it, along with her compliment of jewelery, flawless diamonds on her fingers and around her neck. The two of them were such a striking couple that it was little wonder why they were at the center of attention.

As they stood atop a small stage to the right of the orchestra, the musicians ended their piece and the guests began to sit down at the white clothed tables, all of them equally sated from the prime rib that had been served alongside premium truffle risotto and tiramisu.

Desmond tapped the microphone at the center, satisfied that it was in working order.

"Welcome, I'd like to thank you for all coming, seeing this will mark the start of our adamant journey. So leave your checks at the back." He grinned when the audience burst out in laughter, "We have great plans in place for our followers, which encourages us to," He stopped, suddenly reaching into his pocket to see a ringing and vibrating comlink.

"I'm horribly sorry for the inconvenience," He gave a thin smile when the crowd laughed, "I will let my beautiful wife Karin continue." He had prepared her to talk in case he did get called.

While she took the floor, he exited around the other side of the tent and opened the private channel, one that evaded the ears of ONI agents working in their eavesdropping quarters and monitored by his highly selective intelligence unit of his own. He stood on the perfectly trimmed grass field, quietly observing the ocean water lap at the sand beach.

"This is Desmond."

"Did I interrupt?" A low voice came from the other end.

"Nah, I had Karin ready to take over if this ever happened."

"I see." He said, "Well I've already intercepted a report from a freighter that it had spotted the Sub-Aqua resort."

"What's the report?" Desmond was too eager to pay attention to the laughter and applause coming from the tent.

"No survivors."

"I thought the strain was perfected." He sharply replied, "Did this freighter interfere?"

"When I triggered the charges, they had a possibility of boarding crew being inside."

Rage immediately began to prick his skin, "Are you crazy? We're trying to keep as low-key out here and you're putting others in harm's way! The last thing we need is for the UNSC and ONI to come breathing down our ass."

"Well you know where to direct them if they do." The voice replied coldly and sarcastically, "What am I supposed to do? Show up and tell them to get the fuck off the boat? They'd know something's up and if it goes as planned, they won't survive to tell the horrors of what really happened aboard."

"Then the explosive drones must have done their job?"

"It worked like a charm. How much did they cost?"

Desmond chuckled, "Three thousand apiece."

"I used every single one provided and they did well. I just wish my schedule was faster so that it wouldn't have to be detected."

"Okay, I'm pulling you out. Get back to the headquarters in Tampa. We have enough work for you to do."

"It's done." The line clicked dead.

The orchestra began playing again when Desmond made his way back inside the tent. The sun dipped below the horizon, lighting the sky with an orange glow that radiated warmly on the Florida peninsula. The floor had been cleared of tables and the elegantly dressed people swayed to the slow romantic themed tune, arms and hands clasped over their partners.

He spotted Karin overlooking the precession and waved her over.

"Who was that?" She asked, blue eyes widened in anticipation. If possible, people could be hypnotized by it.

"Verdoorn. He said that a freighter spotted the Sub-Aqua in Uniform Alpha."

She gasped. Desmond placed a kiss on her lips before speaking softly so that nobody else would hear him, "No survivors."

"Wonderful." It was a bit odd at seeing a joyful face after hearing about a massacre.

He straightened up, reaching for a flute of champagne, "Our work is about to pay off honey. All that stands before us is a few weeks. Humanity will be reborn and free of strife or hardship."

"Reborn in our image." Karin echoed. She took another champagne flute, filled with the fizzy amber liquid. They were about to toast to one another when Desmond stopped, "How about we toast with our guests. We can't leave them out of this."

She smiled, "I don't see why not."

As the party dragged on, neither husband or wife gave a second thought on the hundreds of men, women and children aboard the resort. Many of them were really members of their group. The toll of deaths that loomed ahead were only a small fraction of those on the isolate moon.

* * *

**Crazy people! I'd almost compare them to the Covenant religious fanatics.**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose.**


	15. The Culprit IV

**UNSC **_**Ballista**_

**October 1, 2558**

_Ballista_ was making headway in the middle of a slipspace tunnel accelerating back towards Earth. Aegis had pushed his deadline up and the helm officer on duty reported that they would arrive around an hour before midnight Sydney time.

The Blades ran as a strictly after profit company, but the enterprise was guided by his own moral compass. Even the sangheili followed it, disregarding if it crossed swords with their own. There would be jobs that they would refuse, no matter how fat the pay was. Same thing vice versa, they had taken on jobs that rewarded with doing the right thing and absolutely no payment other than moral satisfaction was gotten out of it. As he had done in the past, he always offered his crew a chance to leave the _Ballista_ until the mission had been complete. He had no issue of putting himself in harm's way to keep others safe, but he would never demand that of his crew.

As always, none accepted his offer, showing an intense loyalty mimicked by few. Every single one of them would follow Aegis straight to the gates of hell and back. They may be a bunch of ragtag mercenaries, but they were also some of the finest individuals he has worked with. They all shared the role of putting themselves in harm's way to protect the innocent, the same they had done to their respective organizations prior. They did it because the galaxy grew more dangerous with every passing day. If nobody stood up to it, then they would.

His comlink buzzed from Sofia. He arranged the first meeting with himself, Drew, Sofia, Luke and Danny. The later meeting would come near dinner time with much more of the staff.

"Sofia, I'm on my way down."

"Good, everyone's here except Drew and yourself." She said, "Last time I heard, he was on the phone arguing with his ex again."

"Send Luke over to get him."

* * *

The conference room had the three others already inside when Aegis walked in followed by the medic.

Before anyone could say anything, Drew approached like a hawk zeroed in on his prey, "Good to see you out of iso. How are you feeling?"

"Glad to be alive." Aegis deadpanned.

"That was sure a show, even though you knocked yourself out on the way up. I've never seen anything like it. You came out like a loose valve in a pool pump."

"More like a cork in a champagne funnel. I was planning to swim my way out of the filtration ducts when I realized that the pressure coming inside was too great. Rather than pull myself out, I lugged scuba tanks and busted them open to create an equal reaction to eventually win and shoot myself out."

"Looked like one wild ride."

"It sure was." Aegis motioned everyone to sit, "Now Luke and Danny, what did you get from the ship's logs?"

"Well Miss Liston told us that it was part of a charter group for the Hollow Societea. She was on a journey from the ports of Abakan to the moon's spaceport to Sigma Octanus."

"Wasn't it Caracas in Venezuela?" Luke asked.

"It's the Caracas on Sigma Octanus four." Danny shot back.

Even though the mood wasn't optimistic, both Aegis and Sofia couldn't hide their smile. Neither of them were going to get very far with Haley.

"I talked with Jen again. This was not kidnapping at all. She told me that so I'd get involved. Chase is someone who's easily turned by peer pressure. Wrong people in school and that hype. The psychologist told me that it's not an addiction problem, but a self-esteem one. Anyway, Jen told me about Hollow Societea and he had declared himself a member known as a Societist. He's now in the facility Caracas at Sigma Octanus IV in some sort of retreat there."

"Really? I don't know that much about them anyway."

"Neither do I." Drew admitted, "Only know what Jen's told me so far."

"You're obviously not in the celebrity gossip world are you?" Sofia said, "Some of the most famous actors like Kendra Floris are members. It's practically the new Hollywood hype."

"So it's a cult?"

"Nobody knows for sure, well for those not in. It was started by a husband and wife team named Doug and Carly Odgers. Both of them were religious pastors of some religion and said that they had been spared by a Covenant elite swordsman due to their beliefs. They had begun to think that they were protected by terms issued by some god to follow in debt to their sparing."

"It's a cult for sure." Danny muttered.

"Anyway," She continued as if he didn't say anything. "Doug and Carly saw humanity's growth as a threat and knew that people were not going to be confident in themselves. They've been founding a group of like-minded people who dislike humanity's growing numbers, telling us that rapid rebirth can cause us to fall short of even shorter resources. Doug was later killed on a distant colony siege against overwhelming Covenant forces and his story of his teachings to the other troops seemed to give their souls peace. Carly disappeared about six years ago. Now it's being run under a husband and wife team which one of them claims to be their offspring."

"What does the group do now?" Aegis asked.

"They now primarily provide energy saving products as well as things to achieve a sort of inner peace and finding the value in oneself. As you might imagine, they are highly opposed to several opinion groups, churches and political officials."

"So they basically killed several members of their own group." Aegis pondered, "What is there to gain in that?"

"I don't have an answer for one." Luke said. Aegis let it pass for now.

"Well come up with some ideas and we will run it by the meeting later today."

"Roger that."

"I'll update Mr. Morgrave on our progress." Jason Morgrave was Aegis' former handler when he first joined ONI. While his time in Section III was classified, his days in Section I with Morgrave proved to be a very effective team. He was bordering on seventy, but was just as proficient with a weapon as he was fifty years ago. The fact that he was still there and in contact with the Blades meant that neither ONI head, Parangosky or Osman had kicked him out yet. The previous ONI contact for a while, codenamed Adamant had been moved on to other projects.

Two hours later, the kitchen staff was almost ready to serve dinner. Aegis caught Vaal Talam just as he exited the fitness room just across the hallway from the main dining area. The sangheili had a tight black suit casually worn when not in combat. It functioned similar to the Spartan's undersuit, except it didn't exactly double as casual clothing and most elites in the Blades had few clothing items that suited them.

"Vaal, can I have a word?"

"Of course." He was one of Aegis' closest friends and speaking to him was just as easy as Drew.

"I think that I may have forgot an issue in today's meeting. The weapon tracking."

"Ah. I shall put it down on your datapad before we commence." He had assigned him that because he found it amusing to see Vaal's frustration trying to type out on a tiny human datapad. Of course he didn't need to know that.

"Thanks." Aegis slapped him on the side, "Meeting's in a half hour. Go take a shower. I can't stand your leathery scent after you've pumped iron."

Vaal let out an annoyed huff, "Just sit opposite me. Nobody else seems to mind."

It would take his instincts to know that all humans minded; they just didn't have the guts to tell him.

* * *

After parting with Vaal, Aegis had entered the bridge just as the ship exited slipspace, now at the colony of Criterion. Here they would restock with a few supplies for a half hour and he would start the meeting once the helmsman plotted a course back to their next destination.

It would be quite a large diversion if he chose either the Sigma Octanus system or the Sol, so stopping at Criterion would mean that a vector change would be minimal, despite it being farther away than other colonies. On the plus side, Criterion's fuel prices were lower.

He paid the bill through his datapad and stood at the helm, watching some of his less experienced staff plot her through her navigation. When he was asked where he wanted to go, he just pointed in the general direction of Earth and Sigma Octanus IV. That decision would be adjusted as the meeting went on.

Once _Ballista_ was in slipspace again, he moved down towards the conference area. It was previously a briefing room where Navy boys would be informing ODST squads about their mission. The entry pods they used were removed and replaced with additional storage for vehicles. Now it was renovated to make an average office conference table look like poor man's work. To start, the table was made of woven carbon fiber to a rich brown appearance and sturdy enough to support a fully armored Spartan's weight.

Over the last few hours, his crew had been working around the clock. He didn't know what the exploration of the cause death on Sub-Aqua would lead, but he was determined to find those responsible and make them pay dearly. In the next hour, they would have their next moves and it would be executed with military precision with zero margins for error, just like they had done with previous operations. Evil never slept, but they had to.

Aegis popped his knuckles and cursed; it was a nasty habit of his that occurred whenever he had gotten nervous or anxious. Although there was nothing to be nervous about. He scratched an itch at the back of his head as soon as he reached the conference chamber. It was showtime.

* * *

**Time to plan the next move.**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone. You give my writing purpose.**


	16. Snatch & Grab I

**UNSC **_**Ballista**_

**October 1, 2558**

Francois laid out a meal originating from Japan, since a good portion of Criterion had Japanese descendants. The aroma of fish filled the air and steam from various dishes was visible as it vented upwards.

There were plates full of shrimp and vegetable covered in tempura batter and tomkatsu; deep fried pork with a sweet chili sauce. Bowls contained Teriyaki chicken, Kobe beef, miso soup and sweet sticky rice. Unlike a traditional Japanese cuisine as one may imagine, sushi was actually reserved for special occasions and not part of everyday Japanese diet. Nevertheless, there was plenty of that as well. Sushi was an artful way of presentation and the multicolored pieces were elegant enough for anyone. There was Unagi and Sake Nigiri, a simple one-piece sushi with a piece of barbeque eel or salmon and a variety of other rolls including Makizushi and Western style. Lastly, a multicolored pink and orange plate of sashimi, or raw fish was a delicacy.

Francois brewed his excellent green tea, which intense flavor was enough to stem the spicy green wasabi paste.

Aegis wasn't exactly hungry, so he had a few sushi rolls, a couple tempura, katsu pieces and sashimi. He let his crew fill their plates and they ate for fifteen minutes before he called the meeting to order. The others present were Leah Roush, Vasili Suvorov, Sofia Inselton, Vaal Talam, Luke Riley, Danny Tyler and Drew.

"As you know, we have three main topics for discussion today. Two of them are possibly related. The first is weapons tracking in the Storm Covenant, second is rescuing Drew's son and lastly we will cover the Sub-Aqua. For the latter one, we have Conan Pyra working on a tactical plan with our contingent of fighters. When they're done, we'll go over it separately. First up is the weapons tracking. What is necessary once the tags begin transmitting?"

Leah spoke up, "It was quite difficult to get all of the tags in their respective weapons, but they will begin transmitting by late tomorrow."

"You sure the tags are undetectable?" As soon as they were double crossed, it was only predictable that their quarry would inspect every inch of the dealt weapons to ensure that they were not tampered with. A careless action on their part would be their own demise because the enemy was indirectly watching their every movement. However, the Covenant's arsenal was vaster than the shipment of needlers, fuel rod guns and storm rifles the Blades had delivered. It expanded to the longer ranged carbines, beam rifles, needler rifles and the standard plasma pistol. However, they knew that the equipment would be much more spread out in troop movements and approximated for a good fifty five percent of the Covenant military units where at least one tagged weapon would be tracked.

"Absolutely." Luke Riley had worked with the technicians on fitting the tags in for the weapons. They were essentially a small black device about the size of his thumbnail and fitted into a place that many using the weapon would overlook. They would send out a signal back to the receiver computer with an impressive range every forty five minutes and the information would then be sent to UNSC command, where ONI had fronted the data to. "However, they'll scour the weapons for tags as soon as they get into a safe place. I had a feeling that someone tipped them off or they were one step ahead of us."

"The tags will have a lower frequency wavelength than most transmitters the UNSC uses," Danny added when Drew nodded in agreement, "So not only will it be a little more indeterminate who really planted them, but they'll appear useless on the outside."

"Then why are they not moving?" Aegis asked, "Last time Osman spoke to me this morning, she told me that the tags must be daft or something. None have moved for a while."

"Could it be possibly that they found the tags?"

"No way." Luke grinned, "It gets a little more sophisticated than that."

"Explain." Leah ushered.

"Well Drew and I didn't tell you this, or Osman for that fact. However, it is true that the tags must've been removed because the Storm had found them. What we didn't tell anybody is the psychological trick, a false sense of security. Well many of the techs and we had worked throughout the night on the shipment, mainly on the weapons' stocks. We pried them open and created a cavity, then sealed them shut enough to hide any evidence of tampering except to the really eagle eyed, which I don't think any elite has."

Trip saw Talam narrow his eyes ever so slightly.

Seeing their ally in a bit of offended, Luke quickly corrected his statement, "Well at least on their side."

"Unbelievable," Leah exclaimed in awe, "That's pure genius! That way once they've removed the first tag, none of them will bother to search for any more!"

Drew smirked, "Besides, the tags on the surface are not even working. If you want to get to the real transmitting tag, you can't take it out without seriously damaging the weapon's performance. It's their choice if they discover it. Sacrifice firepower or detailed movements are ours to watch."

"When will these tags come online and when will they die?"

Luke looked over at Drew, "We set them to start transmitting around eighteen hundred hours and the power source will terminate after four days."

"Okay." Aegis waved his hand to move the subject over, "Pipe everything not sensitive to the spooks. Second, with possible intelligence on Chase Rayson's location at a Hollow Societea compound on Sigma Octanus IV, we're going to do a snatch and grab op. What will we need to do on our end once we grab him?"

"He may have to be deprogrammed." Sofia said, "It may take more than just a general psychologist to break the grip Societea has left on him."

"Most likely," Luke replied, "If I had a son fall into this shady group, I'd hire a deprogrammer." He looked over at Drew, "I'm sorry, I didn't want to upset you."

The older man's head hung a little lower, "They're a cult?" He must have sunk into a deeper depression about his son.

"Every classic trait fits the Hollow Societea, or just shortened to the Societea. Charismatic leaders, followers encouraged to cut relations with family and friends who are not members and they are expected to follow a strictly guided set of laws laid out in the teachings of the founder." Luke made a disgusted face, "Ugh, I even sound like a cultist doing that. When a member leaves, others will try and impede his or her attempt."

"What do you mean stop them?" Drew asked.

"Well uh," Luke looked back at his worn notebook, a well catalogued yellow covered pad that documented his notes and things to go over during a meeting. Both he and Danny Tyler went through a notebook every couple months. "There have been news reports of members who escape being abducted from their homes and transported back for so called reeducation."

"Is that how the son was abducted?" Vaal asked, "Could he have escaped?"

"It doesn't fit," Tyler countered, "This is the first time this has happened and there would be no need for reeducation if Chase had willingly joined."

"They have plenty of health clinics around, both physical and mental. Some of the colonies that had the worst of Covenant attacks but spared glassing. They even have a handful in Venezia, where they ironically have a lot of government support."

"That's odd." Aegis said.

"It is, the Venezian government hates cults, which has even spread to other warring parties of the place. There's been a lot of pressure to Triad followers due to the fanatical devotion the religion has. However, the Hollow Societea gives them opportunities to exploit the UNSC as well as keeping its own people in check from blowing each other up."

Vasili added, "Same thing. The government does see it as a threat to their rule, but it's tolerable due to their ideals of shaping it into a more hospitable place than just a world that hates the UNSC." There was little doubt to his statement, given he had spent a good two years in Venezia, monitoring some truly bad people.

"Let's get back to helping Chase." Aegis wanted to move the meeting along, "It is evident that he must be deprogrammed. Is there someone we have been in touch with?"

Leah looked back at her datapad and nearly forgot to swallow a mouthful of tempura before she spoke, "Since we are kidnapping Chase, it is a priority that we must get him out of Caracas ASAP to avoid friction with the police and authorities. She never game me a name, instead going by the alias of Hope, in light of shining hope upon wayward people who have fallen into the Societea's grasp. A former psychiatrist based in Tampa. She will meet up with us at Insularia on Luna. We already have moved a private airline company on standby at the Caracas Spaceport to Insularia since Rio Grande doesn't have one of its own, where we have rooms reserved. She specializes in helping former Societea followers break away and return to normal lives. From everything gathered, I'd say that she is the best one possible."

"Was this Hope a member herself?" It was pretty common for therapists and deprogrammers to once be a part of the organization they would eventually battle against. Much like how former alcoholics and druggies would persuade others to overcome their own addiction.

"She was not. However, she has helped more than four hundred escape in the past five years. It appears that her ultimate goal is the Societea's destruction."

Aegis was intrigued, "Four hundred?" He let out a low whistle, "What's her fee?"

"Seventy-five thousand, plus expenses. It is guaranteed that Chase will be back to normal when done."

"He better be." Drew snarled under his breath.

"For an individual to make it their life's mission against the Societea, that means this group is quite big." Vaal remarked.

"The Societea's website claims that there are more than six million just on Earth with multiple times that on the colonies. Ultimately, they believe that there are more than three and a half billion members total. Hope's recorded message told estimation nearly doubles that. Not to mention that the group's popularity is rising quickly due to its popularity with the celebrities. People copy the stars."

"We have a cover story for Hope?" Aegis asked.

Leah scrolled down on her datapad, replying, "We do. Drew will be a leading architect in the Seattle metropolitan area who wants his son back from the Societea. We are the private security company that has been hired to retrieve him. When I spoke to Hope's receptionist, he seemed very unperturbed when I explained the story, so I think this is something they've encountered in the past."

"Very good." Aegis concluded, "We grab Chase, where he'll be transported to Luna and then he'll be handed over to Hope. We will need to make a fraud temporary passport so he can't be tracked."

"I'm on it." Leah glanced away from the pad. Trip waved, dismissing her to the task. "Lastly, what happened aboard the Sub-Aqua resort? Why and what do we know so far?"

Danny Tyler produced his datapad and unlocked it, "The Sub-Aqua Resort is owned by a private family business that is all over the place in tourism. Roost, Forseti, Earth's Dubai, Singapore, Florida, Hawaii and much more, being headquartered in Los Cabos in Mexico. They own several hotels and floating resorts. About four months ago, the company was approached by the Societea to perform a voyage from Uniform Alpha's Faryo Islands from an unidentified origin. The Sub-Aqua resort was the only available option for the entire satellite. I've already monitored the Societea website which indicates no retreats of any kind in that area."

"Keep going." It was only a thought that the bottom would be less murky.

"The resort left on September twenty-eighth and no incidents reported. Smooth sailing."

"Right up to where everyone died." Sofia said.

"Well I did overlook one detail." When he said that, all of the heads turned to him, "I noticed one of its life rafts had been lowered before we even showed up."

"So?"

Luke came in, "The computer log indicated that it was lowered on September the thirtieth, from what Haley had told us, just hours before the attack happened."

"The slayers were on the resort the whole time?" Vaal asked.

"It stands to reason, but it doesn't indicate it." Luke replied, "Danny and I worked throughout the morning checking manifests of crew and passengers. None of them had particularly shady backgrounds and no crew substitutions were made."

"So then what the hell had killed them?" Sofia asked.

"There are two distinct options, either the Societea did it themselves or someone had infiltrated the group. They're not a suicide cult though, saying that once you're born it's the moral responsibility to spread beliefs and happiness."

Aegis finished the food on his plate, "Well let's shift to the second option, who are their biggest opponents?"

"Well their biggest enemy is the Vatican as well as most other conservative Christian organizations. All of this due to their stance on birth control and other odd ideals."

Trip shook his head, "Well I can see a fanatic with a pistol involved in the murder of a priest member, but a massacre of the entire resort means that the killer was a well trained and well funded team. I don't see a bunch of Catholic bishops armed with a virus or rifles in order to kill the entire shipload."

"What about the really devout?" Luke said, "A bunch of zealots made up of ex-members. Aside from the humanity reckless expansion and growth, the Societea are into some extremely weird things. It doesn't come out initially, you have to be in the inner circle for a long time before you're let in on some of the darkest secrets."

"Educate me." Aegis said.

"Ever heard of the Hidden Mantle?"

Everyone except Danny Tyler gave him a complete blank stare. He had discussed it with him merely hours ago, which gave his familiarity. "Years before we came into contact with the Covenant, we were already excavating Forerunner artifacts, which gives explanation all of the worlds where we discovered them had Covenant initiating an invasion instead of just simply glassing from orbit."

"Invasions were costly." Vaal added, "However, we did whatever our Prophets had demanded of us."

"Anyway," Luke ignored him, "Doug Odgers, one of the Societea's founders used to study archaeology and some of these artifacts before he was in the military. Something had clicked in him under the belief that the beings that had built the monuments and artifacts found were still out there and basically under the godlike status. It's a lot similar to brane theory, but instead it wasn't another dimension." This was now true, ever since the Didact was awakened and resumed his campaign to bring humanity down again.

"Noted."

"This Hidden Mantle, which coincidentally became the same thing the Forerunners had taken up as their moral belief was popular with theoretical psychologists and archaic professors. Doug Odgers did extensive research on the subject too. He believed that the Forerunners, although extinct were still very much in control of everyday lives, a cause for all of our anguish, strife and suffering. Well to limit and even prevent this from happening, Odgers began revealing teachings on the subject just before he was killed."

"People actually bought it?" Drew was falling deeper into depression over his son.

Luke nodded, "You bet. Just see it from their end of the spectrum. It's not a Societist's fault that he's unfortunate, frivolous or plainly idiotic, his or her life is being messed up because of the Forerunner's Hidden Mantle. The Forerunners is what is costing you that promotion or screwing up the chances to go out with the girl of your dreams. An extraterrestrial force restraining you, not yourself. Today, nobody wants to take responsibility for their own actions. The Hollow Societea gives you an excuse for the poor life decisions you made and you would believe that you've done the right thing."

"So what does all of the Hidden Mantle have to do with killing a ship filled with Societea members?"

"I don't know." Luke looked down, "Didn't think it all the way through."

"Good point, but for now, we're going to stick to terrestrial enemies."

Vasili stuck a piece of tuna sashimi in his mouth by chopsticks, "Is it possible that they were made an example? Maybe because they were attempting to leave the group and the high members of the Societea displayed what would happen in case of disobedience or desertion? Kidnapping isn't beyond them like Danny said what if it's now murder?"

"I don't think they would do that to disbelievers." Drew replied, suddenly vigilant concerning Chase, "If some try and leave, they don't want to make headlines because of a killing, but instead lay low and try to persuade him or her back inside the inner circle."

"Well I'm sorry Drew," Sofia put her hand on his shoulder, "It has to still be a consideration. Chase is a new convert."

"Any way to prove Vasili's theory?"

"Computer's will be locked tight. If we find one in their network, I can bypass their security and maybe get a glimpse into their naughty and nice list."

"Give it a try," Aegis encouraged, "Cross-reference it with the database on the ship, maybe they killed everyone to mask the true target." He turned to Vasili, "Get me information on why so many members were at the Faryo Islands and Abakan; I think that's a place we need to start."

Aegis looked over at his best friend, "Are you sure you'll be okay and good about this?"

"Of course." Drew snapped back, "It's fucking frustrating, painful and embarrassing at the same time. It's my son we are talking about, not some client that really isn't attached to us. I feel that I've let him down. If I hadn't been a better father, this would never have happened! Jennifer is only part of the problem, but there's nothing we can do from her end."

Nobody spoke for a while. Oddly, it was Danny Tyler who broke the silence following, "Drew, this is not a predicament that you possess alone. Look at me. I grew up in an abusive home with a father that beat my mother, younger brother and me every night he could be able to afford some sort of liquor. It was about the worst situation imaginable, getting even more downhill when I found out my brother committed suicide because it was so bad. Although I will never forget him, I turned out just fine. Your son may have had things that are more challenging than other families. Chase is the way he is because it was his choice. I don't think you were around much for Sam or Kim either and they're both successful marketers."

"They're lawyers and directors." Drew corrected, "Both of them did it on their own."

"Exactly. If you can't take responsibility for their successes, then you are in no position to take responsibility for the failures either of your son."

Drew paused before slowly turning over to Danny, "How old are you?"

"Twenty-five sir."

"Thank you. You are really a wise man." When he said that, Tyler cracked a true smile from ear to ear.

Aegis gave a nod of appreciation to Tyler and stood to adjourn the meeting, "We hit Sigma Octanus IV in six hours and only three to finalize our plans with the operatives. Once we've secured transport to Luna, we're en route to Macau for our job there. We good?"

Everyone gave a nod, saying in unison, "Yes sir!"

"Okay, dismissed."

With an air of confidence like this, Aegis had no idea how far from simple this mess was truly going to be.

* * *

**Decisions have been made and the snatch and grab is going to be executed!**

**With Venomous Honor finally completed with the addition of the bonus chapter, the next installment is being written. No scheduled release has been determined.**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose.**


	17. Snatch & Grab II

**Rio Grande, Sigma Octanus IV**

**October 2, 2558**

Sigma Octanus IV was a planet covered in lush humid tropical forests for the majority of its land surface. One of the planets inside the Sigma Octanus system, it was known for its beaches, resorts and beautiful cities, an ideal place for UNSC personnel to seek leave time.

The planet was attacked in 2552 by Covenant forces, although thanks to the efforts of UNSC and Spartan teams, they were beaten and forced to retreat. The surprising victory came at a heavy cost, of multiple cities nuked and many slaughtered by the Covenant, both civilian and military. Nearby Caracas was one of the cities destroyed, estimated to take at least a full decade to fully recover from the damage. Still, the planet was recovering nicely with population booms and cities of Enfield and Caracas leading the rebuilding efforts.

Rio Grande was southwest and a smaller city in its shadow. It was thankfully spared from the nuke that destroyed the larger metro area, but its citizens weren't saved from the initial invasion.

The Hollow Societea Compound was just ten minutes off the main highway that circled Rio. A cliff preceded the compound, allowing an unobstructed overwatch of the entire facility.

Aegis patted his hip holster to ensure that his M6C sidearm was secure. The Blades were prone atop the cliff performing varying sweeps of the base.

Earlier that day, he and Leah had gone into Rio Grande's best security company, knowing Hollow Societea's wealth was enough to afford the best systems. They posed as a married couple seeking an alarm system after purchasing a house in suburban Caracas. The store's owner had initially questioned why they had come all the way here, but Leah assured him that they were unsatisfied with the ones in that area. He then pointed to a small holo-still display of several famous members of the organization as if to prove it.

The security installed was top notch at least to keep the unwanted out, however the professionals easily had quite the advantage. There was a single gate just below leading from a road that curved off leading towards the highway in the distance.

The facility was sprawling over a wide clearing, arranging rectangular concrete buildings in a gridlike fashion. The first security measure he saw as soon as he was perched atop the cliff, razor sharp edges with trip wire running atop the entire perimeter of the compound. Next were cameras and motion sensors. By the time he had gotten into position, he and his team had already counted more than a dozen, they could only suspect even more were inside.

The security wasn't particularly complicated, it was formidable nonetheless. Aegis suspected they were placed not to keep people out, but keep people in.

There were three demilitarized warthogs parked in front of the main administration building, missing their iconic LAAG and replaced with a mount for a lighter machine gun. The engines were cold shown by his helmet's thermal scan. He noticed that there was a complete lack of guards patrolling or automated sentry guns. Not even guard dogs were spotted roving or heard barking.

Conan Pyra and Vaal Talam had spent an hour observing the camera's blind spots, easily mapping out a good pathway up the administration building. Since they had no idea where Chase was being held, the computers operated by the facility's director would show his location, as it was proper to know every single member on the retreat.

The strategy had been worked out four hours ago, so the remainder of that time was spent placing everything in their rightful realm. Cars were rented, escape routes scouted and they had secured a clearance slot for Maverick to land at Caracas' spaceport so that the British airline could get them to Luna. All the paperwork had been done and they had secured SUV drivers on the other end.

Even if things went haywire, which they usually did, they were ready to alternate to a separate contingency at a seconds' notice. Vasili and Danny Tyler headed up the precision with such care that the latter had studied the charts of weather passing through the Rio, determining the precise moment that the raid should commence. Although Aegis himself was participating in this snatch, it was Conan Pyra who would be leading the four man team and it was his responsibility to ensure everyone was prepared for the moment.

"Countdown thirty seconds from my mark." He said over the radio, "Mark."

Aegis tapped his green light to show that he understood. On the other side, Vaal Talam was next to Pyra. The fourth member, Luke Riley was outfitted in a Marine BDU, tapped his green light as well.

He tugged at his hips, making sure the magnetic clamps still held the two M6C sidearms. Although he preferred the Acheron Security A9 pistol due to its ability to defeat most body armor regardless of range, this was a nonlethal mission. The compact twelve rounder sidearms had approximately two thirds of their normal power and the bullet part was carbon fiber. At close range, the bullets could be deadly, however anything beyond nine meters wasn't lethal, but certainly hurt and could take the fighting fire out of the average man with a single impact.

As if a higher being was in play, the clouds slid over the moon overhead like an oil slick. The night became an inky blackness that made the orange lights in the compound grow brighter as the computers inside adjusted to the output.

The Spartan turned back to Luke Riley and then held a harpoon in hand. He aimed it just above a sturdy branch of a tree that passed behind the road. With a blast of compressed air that was nothing more than a whispering hiss. The line secured itself after a split second once Aegis secured his end. He tossed a harness over to Luke and quickly secured himself on.

The ride down felt awkward and slow, partially due to the wind going against them. Aegis held on, for the first time, he found that wasn't shivering from the chill, safely inside the MJOLNIR armor. Thankfully, Riley's face was obscured by a black balaclava with a faint skull pattern to prevent getting frostnip. Odd that they'd have to do that in the warm tropical Sigma Octanus, known for its weather.

He landed silently just out of sight from anyone patrolling the road and took position up against the wall. Behind him, Luke had arrived and threw their harnesses into the woods before unclipping the line and signaling the computer to reel it back. It would later be decomposed within a week and he was doubtful it would be discovered by then.

"You ready?" Aegis asked, his green Pathfinder helmet scanning the top of the concrete wall.

"It's been really fun." The skull masked hacker replied, "You know, having two missions within three days."

Aegis activated his Promethean vision module. The attachment allowed him to see through buildings up to seventy five feet and it highlighted vehicles, hostiles and other objects. It wasn't very defining though, but that's where backscatter optics came into play. The coast was clear and it wasn't able to display any forms of sleeping beings on the other side.

"We're moving." He heard Pyra say. Pressing the armored back to the concrete wall, he bent down with his hands cupped. Riley stepped into his armor and Trip boosted him onto his shoulders.

When he was up top, Riley almost cut his hands to coconut shreds when he made the mistake to using his hands to steady himself on the fiberglass razor edge. He paused for a second to let Aegis find his center of balance and went straight to work. The tripwire was nearly impossible to see, almost as thin and clear as a spiderweb strand. It was a centimeter from the edge and supported by many tiny motion sensors. It would take less than one tenth of his weight to trigger the alarm. A wire with appropriate alligator clamps allowed the current to flow freely between the points, giving a two foot gap for the duo to enter through. He produced a combat knife, slicing the wire in the middle, finding himself automatically in a flinching stance in case he screwed up. Fortunately for him, no alarms blared or lights snapping on in any buildings. Lastly, a Kevlar synthetic blanket covered the razor fiberglass. Even with the full weight of the MJOLNIR armor, it was still unable to cut through the durable material. He heaved himself over and moved to his right, performing a quick sweep of the general area with his sidearm.

Aegis grasped a tree with his right hand and used it along with his left against the wall to push himself up and land with a light precision at Luke's side.

"We're in." Aegis reported then turned back to Riley, "You're getting mandatory time in the fitness center once we get back." He showed no effects of holding him for a long time.

To their right, Conan Pyra and Vaal Talam were making their own entrance. Although the sangheili was a god in covert security bypasses, it had been the Spartan who had cut the wire. All the training in the world wouldn't be able to hold Vaal's four hundred and eighty pound frame.

Keeping low, Aegis led Riley away from the wall, using the two rectangular buildings as cover. They moved in erratic motions, but it had actually been carefully mapped out to the cameras had been blind to their path. Their entrances over the wall was at the two blind spots the cameras had on the outer fence area.

Their destination was a cabin that was about the size of the average American home with communications gear stashed on the side and protected by an electric cage.

As another precaution, Aegis observed the tire markings on the ground, satisfied that they were not in just one area. Had they been, it could mean that there is a minefield, however likely. A Promethean vision scan showed no hidden explosives whatsoever.

There were cameras mounted on the house's front which caused them to crouch low and move towards the cabin at an angle so that they would be against a darker background from the surveillance device's perspective. Finally, they were free to move once they passed underneath the sunroof in front.

Aegis peered into the office where a dimly lit file cabinet could be seen, reflected off of a computer at the front desk. He saw a glimmer of movement to the left inside and saw the faint outline of a man going through some papers.

The alarm had been deactivated since personnel were still inside. He checked the panes in case that there were sensors inside the window itself. Nothing.

He gave a throat slit gesture to Luke who nodded and ducked down. Aegis turned his hand over and opened the bottom side of the window. Thankfully it did not squeak or the entire operation would be over before it even started. He lifted one leg through the opening and then slid his whole body through.

He closed the gap in a second. The man, actually couldn't have been older than nineteen turned around, sensing a presence behind. Aegis swung his elbow out, connecting with the skull and dropping the kid before he could even register what was happening.

"Lights out." Aegis scanned the room for more threats, but it seemed as if the boy was just by himself. How did he get in the director's office? If this was the maximum security provided by Rio Grande's best company, he'd consider making a career change.

"Office secure."

"Copy that." Pyra said.

Luke Riley made his entrance, shutting the window and making his way over to the computer. He inserted his drive into the port on the computer's side. One hand tapped the keyboard rattling like machine gun fire while the other clicked away.

Aegis left him to his work and swept the office with a small light. He found a corner and gagged the unconscious kid before putting him facedown. The director was also from Europa named Sheen. A little delving into his information showed evidence of real-estate scams and fraud mucking up his career. The incident had been dropped after he "disappeared" from the Jovian moons.

The room's furniture was just what he had expected, desk, some brown leather chairs and sofa behind a marble coffee table. It wasn't dirt cheap stuff; there was an Italian leather chair that Luke was using that would get quite an eye opening price at an auction.

Lining some displays were exotic artifacts, basically Sheen's own personal shrine to himself. Something else caught his attention and he shifted over to a small gold statue of four people all with angelic wings reaching upwards to grasp a ringlike object that was suspended by the weak gravity field in the artifact's center. A plaque was stamped at the base reading, "Remain steadfast in the journey; Douglas & Carly Odgers"

If this was what wayward people like Chase Rayson had joined, there wasn't anything special about the husband/wife prophets. Had he not known what the names of the Hollow Societea looked like, he would have guessed that they were merely family friends.

"Commander, we're detecting signatures in your direction." Leah said.

Aegis glanced towards the door, activating his Promethean Vision, two men dressed in maintenance fatigues were crossing to the compound. It was odd that he never heard them, they would be openly talking if there had been an issue needed to address the engineering staff with. Either way, Aegis wasn't about to let them get caught.

"We need to move."

"Almost there." Luke was typing at nearly double his pace when he yanked the drive out, "Got it!"

As they left, Aegis tossed an electronic eavesdropping device into the cup full of pens on the desk. He knew it would eventually be found, once the break-in was detected, but it would still record the first few critical moments in this Director Sheen's office.

Exiting from the back, Aegis swept left. His pistol in hand, although he had no conscious memory of drawing it.

"Info?"

"Yes." Luke replied, "Chase is in building H, the one right next to Pyra and Vaal's entrance area. He is in room seven and has a roommate named Leo Deelbort."

"Roger that." Aegis relayed the info to Vaal and Conan and moved to rendezvous with them. It took another few minutes to move along the lengthy way for avoiding camera detection.

Building H showed signs of wearing, being a little darker gray than the signed Building I next to it. Conan Pyra and Vaal were crouched right underneath a security camera with the latter shining a red dot on the ground, indicating the lowest viewing point for the electronic measure.

Despite his enormous build and constant awkwardness with most human tools, Vaal was an expert lockpick and had the dexterity of a brain surgeon. He had an odd rod shaped tool in one hand and the ghostly blue glow of his plasma dagger in the other, carving a silent hole straight through. He swiped the blade out and the lock snicked open.

"Sixteen seconds." Conan whispered.

"You humans are in envy." Vaal snickered, easing open the door. The hall had its usual barrack look with a barren wall and dozens of doors lining each side to their left and right. The floor was a carpet that wasn't that much softer than a concrete slab. Washing machines were to the left of the nearest open door. Aegis saw an absence of dryers, assuming that they strung their wet clothes outside to dry, courtesy of the cultist's belief of reducing impact on your natural world. His theory was further proved when he had scanned the compound before entering and seeing multiple solar hydrogen panels on many of the roofs.

Room number seven was easy to find and he was surprised that the door wasn't even locked. It was your typical dormitory room, two metal framed beds, a desk and bureaus that didn't quite match. Even in darkness, the shapes in the bed of sleeping people was undeniable, same with the snoring coming from the far end.

Aegis opened a case that was holstered on his belt, opening it to reveal four hypodermic needles. Inside the syringe, the narcotic was powerful enough to incapacitate a grown man within ten seconds. He handed one over to Pyra and signaled Vaal and Riley to watch the exit. Hope, the deprogrammer had told them that since Chase had willingly joined the Hollow Societea, he was going to resist any effort to escape. She had recommended drugging it, but Aegis already had planned to do it anyway, regardless of her saying.

The duo approached one bed each. The men were sleeping on their stomach, faces towards them. In a fluid movement only capable of a Spartan, Pyra clamped a hand around his victim's mouth, sliding the needle into his neck and applying firm pressure. Across the room, Trip did the same. Typical response when he had made contact. The man's eyes opened with panic and he bucked against Aegis, who easily shrugged off the struggling even when the legs began to thrash wildly.

Before the Commander could even remember that he was going to count, the man's gyrations were slowing and by the time he reached nine, he was unmoving. Aegis snapped on a helmet light and shined it into the kid's face.

Chase Rayson had more of his mother, but there was enough of Drew's features to know it was him.

"Target Pearl secure." He lifted him to Vaal, who carefully slung the man over his shoulder. He looked tiny in the hands of the sangheili.

"All set?"

Vaal grinned, a slight cave of his mandibles through the domed visor, "I carried your unconscious self for ten miles during that time in Emerald Cove. This human weighs nothing, as you would say a one-thirty."

Aegis keyed the channel, "We still clear Leah?"

"The engineers are still in the main complex. Clear for extraction at the primary ridgeline. I saw a light come on in one of the dorms across from you but it went out about ten seconds before you made your entry."

"Probably a full bladder."

"My guess too."

"We're good to go." He signaled his team, allowing Conan to take the lead.

As soon as he stepped outside, an alarm began shrieking, a shrill piercing sound that initially accelerated their heartbeats.

All hell broke loose a second later.

* * *

**I have a feeling that this story is going to be a lot longer than what I anticipate.**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose.**


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